Behind the seismic personnel changes at Google: The business faction takes control of DeepMind, crushing the idealism of scientific research in the AI competition

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Google (GOOGL.US) co-founder Sergey Brin has been pressuring the core AI team in recent months to fully focus on the company's flagship model, Gemini, in order to catch up with competitors. Against this backdrop, the parent company Alphabet announced a major restructuring of the leadership at Google DeepMind on August 5. Analysts believe this adjustment marks a further weakening of DeepMind's autonomy since its acquisition in 2014, with commercial urgency completely overshadowing the research-oriented culture of this London AI lab that has persisted for over a decade.

Insiders revealed that after Anthropic released a preview of its powerful Claude Mythos model, Brin addressed hundreds of employees at an all-hands meeting in April, urging the DeepMind team to accelerate their pace.

Google's Gemini model briefly surpassed competitors in November last year, but subsequent updates from Anthropic and OpenAI have put Google back in catch-up mode. According to two insiders, internal testing shows that the new flagship version of Gemini still lags behind competitors in key areas such as programming, leading Google to delay its release by two months.

DeepMind "Leadership Change": Hassabis Steps Down, Business Faction Takes Control

On August 5, local time, the tech giant headquartered in Mountain View, California, announced a comprehensive leadership adjustment at Google DeepMind. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis stepped down, with his deputy Koray Kavukcuoglu taking over. Hassabis will serve as chairman, with reduced management responsibilities. Meanwhile, the two original technical leads of the Gemini project also left and co-founded a startup.

Under Hassabis's leadership, Google DeepMind's AI research projects have been broader in scope than those of competitors, while also building the Gemini model, which is crucial for commercial interests. However, reports indicate that Hassabis resisted some efforts in recent years that could have brought new revenue to Alphabet or helped it gain a more advantageous position in the AI race.

Although some industry insiders question whether Google is withdrawing from the model competition, seven individuals familiar with the Gemini development work stated that Alphabet's commercialization strategy and last week's structural reorganization are closely related to the company's intention to pursue model leadership.

This adjustment marks a further weakening of DeepMind's autonomy. Since acquiring this London lab in 2014, Google has been undermining DeepMind's autonomy, continuously pushing its AI technology to empower more software products and generate more revenue. Two insiders revealed that Alphabet's restructuring also includes transferring some teams out of DeepMind and integrating them into Google's enterprise division.

On the day the restructuring news was announced, Alphabet's stock price fell by 4%. At a department-wide meeting last Thursday, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu attempted to reassure employees about the future of the AI lab—most employees learned of this change only when the news was made public Informed sources revealed that the two leaders stated that the daily operations of the lab would remain unchanged. The sources said that Demis Hassabis would continue to oversee Gemini, a responsibility he took on more than a year ago. Hassabis also delivered a speech on how AI drives scientific progress and changes society, which will form the new focus of his work as chairman.

However, the all-hands meeting also exposed new concerns that DeepMind's autonomy is being eroded by Google. The sources said that Hassabis and Demis Hassabis informed employees that several non-technical teams are being moved out of DeepMind and integrated into Google's corporate reporting structure. For an organization that once encouraged employees to engage in auxiliary projects, the message of reclaiming dominance in model development is equally clear.

Brin's Behind-the-Scenes Pressure: Betting on "Recursive Self-Improvement"

Google's personnel changes come as Brin seeks to boost employee morale, having taken similar actions after OpenAI's release of ChatGPT shocked Google in 2022.

Although no longer in an executive role, the 52-year-old Brin still influences model training strategies. Sources say he has been emphasizing to core employees for months that Google needs to catch up to the forefront.

The sources also indicated that Brin is leveraging his implicit power as a co-founder of Google to direct resources toward specific areas, such as "recursive self-improvement"—the concept that technology can enhance itself without human intervention.

Two sources stated that Hassabis reduced his involvement in the Gemini project shortly after its initial launch in 2023, delegating related responsibilities to his deputy.

Although Google briefly caught up to the forefront with the release of Gemini 3 last November, it quickly fell behind again. Four sources attributed Google's lagging status to deep-rooted structural challenges. They noted that limitations in computing power and disagreements among the many project leaders of Gemini have led to insufficient resources in critical areas such as programming. Google's bureaucratic system has also resulted in its model release speed lagging behind more agile competitors.

Google declined to comment on these claims. However, CEO Sundar Pichai told Wall Street analysts last month that the company would continue to expand its infrastructure to alleviate the TPU computing power bottleneck required for model training and consumer and enterprise products.

Concentration of Power in Demis Hassabis, Shift of Power Center from London to California

In 2025, Google CEO Sundar Pichai appointed then-DeepMind CTO Demis Hassabis as Google's Chief AI Architect, tasked with integrating Gemini into the company's entire product line. Sources indicated that in the months following, the influence of some DeepMind leaders gradually diminished, while Hassabis became the central figure shaping the direction of Gemini. One source stated that Hassabis received support from Brin.

Sources revealed that as Hassabis reduced his involvement in Gemini and Hassabis moved to Google's headquarters, the influence of some leaders from the London headquarters over the technical direction of Gemini has significantly weakened Kavukoulou is gradually establishing a reputation for being more commercialization-focused in other departments at Google. According to a direct source, even before his relocation, Kavukoulou, rather than Hassabis, was already the main point of contact between DeepMind and Google Cloud (the company's primary AI revenue engine).

A Google spokesperson stated last week that Kavukoulou will now have the final say on significant decisions regarding DeepMind.

In addition to Kavukoulou, some of the most notable leaders, including the original two technical co-leads of Gemini, Jeff Dean and Oriol Vinyals, have left during this reorganization. Three informed sources indicated that the teams reporting to some of these leaders had rare autonomy to engage in research not directly related to Gemini training.

After their departure, Google did not immediately announce plans for the arrangements of these teams or projects, leaving some employees feeling uneasy and concerned that the last barrier protecting the lab from commercial interests would further erode