The Vergecast · Friday, August 7, 2026
Google is experiencing a significant shakeup in its AI leadership, with Jeff Dean, an early Google employee and respected AI researcher, departing to start his own company. Concurrently, Demis Hassabis, who led Google DeepMind, is moving to a new role as Chief Scientist at Alphabet and Chair of Google DeepMind, while Koray takes over as the head of Google DeepMind.
“So two things happened that my understanding is are happening simultaneously, but not because of one another, if that makes sense.”
“So on the one hand, you have, uh, Jeff Dean, who was, I think, employee number 30 at Google, along with a bunch of other respected AI researchers at Google, going off and starting their own company.”
“But anyway, Demis Hassabis, who has been running Google DeepMind for some time, is moving to a different job.”
“He is now the chief scientist at Alphabet and has, I think, is the chair of Google DeepMind now, some sort of honorific title that basically is, he doesn't want to run the thing anymore, but he wants to keep going and be fancy and doing AI things.”
“Uh, one of his deputies, uh, this guy named Koray, is now running Google DeepMind.”