Shares of Alphabet tumbled more than 5% during the trading session on Wednesday, August 5 after Google’s parent announced that its chief scientist Jeff Dean is stepping down after serving 27 years in the company.
The longtime Google employee, a key figure in the development of Google’s AI strategy, is departing to launch a startup, taking several high-profile employees with him. Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind, is moving to a chairman role at the lab.
In a blogpost on Wednesday, Google said, “after an incredible 27-year run, Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we’re excited to support him in that. Jeff and Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public benefit corporation to accelerate discoveries in ML, science, and engineering.”
The development comes after the roll out of Google’s latest version of it flagship Gemini AI model series was delayed, planned to launch in June, leading to speculation from industry figures and investors as to whether the company is lagging behind its peers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Hassabis will be Google’s parent company Alphabet’s Chief Scientist, while continuing to serve as the CEO of Isomorphic Labs, the firm’s AI-driven drug discovery firm, founded by Hassabis.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, will serve as Google DeepMind’s vice president, reporting directly to Hassabis. Kavukcuoglu was initially the firm’s chief technology officer.
Hassabis claimed in an internal memo that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) was “close at hand”.
“It’s critical that we collectively get the next steps right to ensure this all goes well for humanity and we usher in an incredible new age of discovery and wonder,” he said.
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