Google announced a reorganization of its artificial intelligence leadership, with changes at the helm of DeepMind and the departure of veteran researchers. The changes were disclosed by the company on Wednesday (5).
Demis Hassabis will step back from day-to-day operations at Google DeepMind to focus his work on artificial general intelligence (AGI) and research. Koray Kavukcuoglu, the division's current chief technology officer, will take over operational leadership.
Hassabis will remain president of Google DeepMind and will also serve as chief scientist at Alphabet. He will also continue to head Isomorphic Labs, a drug discovery company linked to the group.
Jeff Dean leaves Google after 27 years
Another change involves Jeff Dean, one of Google's longest-serving researchers. Dean will leave the company after 27 years and will create Discovery Loop alongside Sanjay Ghemawat, Quoc Le and Oriol Vinyals.
The new company plans to use artificial intelligence to automate scientific and engineering experiments in areas such as drug development, hardware design, clean energy and new materials.
Dean joined Google when the company was still in its early years and became one of the leading figures in its artificial intelligence field.
Google says it needs to accelerate development
Commenting on the changes, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company intends to remain at the forefront of AI development and acknowledged the need to move faster in areas considered priorities.
Hassabis also said the group is beginning a new phase and has the resources needed to compete for leadership in the industry.
The Verge spoke with former employees and people connected to the industry who pointed to increased internal competition around artificial intelligence products and pressure to accelerate releases.
A source with knowledge of Google's AI operations told the publication that the company was seeking to increase the presence of professionals capable of accelerating development and the arrival of products to the market.
Military contract appears among possible points of tension
The Verge also reported questions about possible internal conflicts related to the military use of Google's artificial intelligence.
The company signed an agreement that allows the United States Department of Defense to use its AI systems for uses considered legal by the American government.
Jeff Dean had publicly spoken out against mass surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons. In 2018, he and Hassabis also signed a statement opposing the delegation of the decision to take a human life to automated systems.
This year, Dean also took part in a court filing in support of Anthropic after the company's dispute with the United States government over limits on military applications of its models.
The sources heard by The Verge raised the possibility that these disagreements contributed to the changes, but the article does not present confirmation from Google that the contract with the Department of Defense motivated Dean's departure or the change in Hassabis's role.
