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The Artificial Intelligence Show · Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Google AI Leadership Shakeup: Demis Hassabis Steps Down as CEO of DeepMind

Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become chair of the company and chief scientist of Alphabet, while continuing his role at Isomorphic Labs. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the change, stating Hassabis will focus on AGI and scientific discovery. Korey Kavakly, formerly CTO of Google DeepMind, will take over as SVP of Google DeepMind, reporting directly to Pichai.

personDemis HassabispersonSundar PichaipersonKorey KavaklycompanyGoogle DeepMindcompanyAlphabetcompanyIsomorphic Labs

The tape

4 quotes
So Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced this past week that Demis Assabis is stepping out of the CEO role at Google DeepMind to become chair of Google DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet while continuing his role as founder and CEO of Isomorphic Labs, which is the drug discovery company that spun out of DeepMind.
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Pichai said Assabis will focus on shaping the future of AGI and scientific discovery.
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Assabis wrote that he has been working towards AGI his whole life and that handing off day-to-day operations now gives him the time and space to focus on the big picture, including leaning into his work at Isomorphic to help finally cure diseases like cancer.
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So Korey Kavakly, the previous CEO, the previous chief technology officer of Google DeepMind and chief AI architect at Google becomes SVP of Google DeepMind.
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Heard on The Artificial Intelligence Show — “#230: Big Google AI Leadership Shakeups, New Details of OpenAI’s Agent Hack, White House AI Framework & OpenAI’s Astra Model Delayed, published Tuesday, August 11, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
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Google AI Leadership Shakeup: Demis Hassabis Steps Down as CEO of DeepMind — Heardvine