Google has relocated its responsible AI team from its DeepMind division to a corporate function, a move that is part of a broader reorganization of its artificial intelligence operations. This shift comes after a significant leadership overhaul announced on August 5, where DeepMind's chief, Demis Hassabis, transitioned to a new role as chair with fewer management responsibilities, and his deputy, Koray Kavukcuoglu, took over as the head of DeepMind. The changes also saw the departure of two original technical co-leads of Gemini, Jeff Dean and Oriol Vinyals, who left to co-found a startup.
The relocation of the responsible AI team is viewed by some as a further erosion of DeepMind's autonomy, which Google has gradually chipped away at since acquiring the London-based lab in 2014. This integration aims to align DeepMind's AI advancements more closely with Google's commercial objectives and to power more of its software. During an all-hands meeting on August 6, staff were informed that several non-technical teams would also be moved out of DeepMind and into the corporate reporting structure, sparking concerns among employees about the lab's future independence. The news of the shake-up caused Google's stock to drop 4% on the day of the announcement.
Demis Hassabis's new role as chair will focus on long-term issues such as how AI can advance science and alter society, while Koray Kavukcuoglu, who assumed oversight of model development over a year ago, will remain in charge of Gemini. Kavukcuoglu has been consolidating power and is seen as more attuned to commercialization, having served as the primary point of contact between DeepMind and Google Cloud, the company's main AI revenue engine. His appointment is also expected to ease tensions with DeepMind regarding the allocation of Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), crucial for AI development. The broader reshuffling indicates Google's drive to achieve "model supremacy" in the AI race, despite concerns from some employees about the potential shift away from pure research towards commercial interests.
