Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis Steps Down to Focus on AI Science and AGI Strategy

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is giving up the CEO title to become chairman and chief scientist of Alphabet, the company said, formalizing a shift away from day-to-day management and toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) strategy and scientific applications of AI, Beatrice Nolan reported for Fortune Tech.

Hassabis shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold. [Photo: John Sears, Wikimedia Commons]

Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's chief technology officer and Alphabet's chief AI architect, will take over day-to-day operations as senior vice president of Google DeepMind.

He will report to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai rather than hold a standalone CEO title and will oversee development of the Gemini models.

Hassabis, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold, told staff that he believes AGI is approaching and that getting the next steps right is critical for humanity.

He will also spend more time at Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet's AI drug-discovery company, which he has described as a leading application of AI for improving human health.

Alphabet shares fell approximately 5% following the announcement.