Google DeepMind gets a major leadership shakeup as Hassabis steps aside and two legendary engineers leave

Google just reshuffled the deck at the top of its most important division. In an internal memo that quickly became an external blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Demis Hassabis is stepping down as head of Google DeepMind, transitioning into the newly created role of Chair and Chief Scientist of Alphabet. Koray Kavukcuoglu, a longtime DeepMind researcher, is taking over as Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind, reporting directly to Pichai. That alone would be a significant corporate reshuffle. But the same week also brought the departure of Jeff Dean, a 27-year Google veteran widely considered one of the most influential engineers in the company’s history, along with fellow engineering legend Sanjay Ghemawat. The two are launching a startup called Discovery Loop, focused on machine learning and scientific breakthroughs. Alphabet shares dropped approximately 4% following the announcements. What actually changed Hassabis isn’t leaving the building. He’ll continue leading Isomorphic Labs, DeepMind’s drug discovery spinout, and his new Alphabet-level title keeps him involved in the company’s broader scientific direction. Kavukcuoglu, who has been at DeepMind since its pre-G...