Google is betting that putting Demis Hassabis closer to Alphabet’s scientific center will help it win the next phase of AI. The same overhaul, however, has sent one of its most revered engineers out the door and revived doubts about whether the company is already losing ground.

In the months leading up to Wednesday’s announcement, Google faced repeated delays to Gemini 3.5 Pro while OpenAI and Anthropic pressed ahead, particularly in the lucrative coding market. Researcher departures and employee backlash over the company’s military work added to the sense of strain.¹

Then came the reshuffle. Hassabis relinquished the day-to-day CEO role at Google DeepMind, becoming Alphabet’s chief scientist and DeepMind chair; CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu took operational control as senior vice president. Hassabis said he needed “the time and space to focus on the big picture and help influence what is to come.”² Pichai cast the move as an expansion, saying Hassabis would be able to focus on “shaping the future.”Sundar Pichai (sundarpichai)³

The company’s case is that Hassabis is best deployed on frontier science, safety and potential breakthroughs beyond consumer chatbots. One longtime Googler described the shift less as a promotion or demotion than a move toward “what he’s passionate about and maybe where the organization needs him.”⁴ Hassabis also amplified a defense of that interpretation, arguing observers should credit his stated reason for stepping back from management.Demis Hassabis (demishassabis)⁵

But the timing magnified the unease. Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist and a 27-year veteran who helped build its search infrastructure, Google Brain and Gemini effort, is leaving with Sanjay Ghemawat and two other researchers to launch Discovery Loop. Alphabet is investing in and partnering with the public-benefit startup, which aims to automate experiments across machine learning, science and engineering.⁶ Pichai thanked the “incomparable” Dean while pledging Google’s support for the venture.Sundar Pichai (sundarpichai)⁷

Inside Google, employees answered the news with affectionate “Jeff Dean Facts” memes — and blunt grief. “Sad day for Google,” read one post, while another argued Dean and Ghemawat’s exit should not have been “a footnote of some reorg.”⁸ Markets appeared similarly unconvinced, with shares falling as much as 6% after the announcements. Google calls it a frontier-AI offensive; critics see a costly test of whether its remaining stars can turn ambition into a catch-up plan.