Google centralizes AI leadership under Kavukcuoglu

Alphabet Inc.'s Alphabet Inc. is consolidating its artificial intelligence leadership at its Mountain View, California headquarters to better compete with rivals Anthropic and OpenAI. The company appointed Koray Kavukcuoglu to run its AI research and operations, while Demis Hassabis stepped back from day-to-day DeepMind operations to become chairman of Alphabet Inc. — Google DeepMind and Alphabet's Chief Scientist. Sebastian Borgeaud, head of a key AI coding effort, also relocated from the UK to California. These moves aim to reverse fragmentation that has persisted since the 2023 merger of Alphabet Inc. Brain and DeepMind, which left researchers on separate continents and complicated decision-making. Alphabet Inc. faces competitive pressure, being months behind schedule on its flagship Google Gemini model and seen as an afterthought in coding automation. The company has pledged up to $205 billion in capital expenditures this year for AI. The reshuffle follows a wave of departures, including legendary engineer Jeff Dean, David Silver (who founded SBM Intelligence with $1.1 billion seed funding), and Simon Bouton (planning to join CuspAI). Kavukcuoglu is now the only Google Gemini co-lead remaining. Alphabet Inc. maintains that London remains an important AI hub, with Hassabis staying there to focus on vision and strategy.