Google recalibrates its AI push as Hassabis shifts toward AGI

Google is narrowing its AI strategy after Demis Hassabis steps back from day-to-day AI research to become Alphabet’s chief scientist and chair of DeepMind, with a senior vice-president taking the helm at the unit. The leadership shake-up follows the departure of four top AI engineers, including Jeff Dean, and signals a move to sharpen focus on Gemini and other frontier-AI efforts. The shift comes as competition tightens with Chinese models and rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, and as industry interest grows in agent-based AI systems and AGI-driven applications across science, coding, and knowledge work. Hassabis says he wants more time to work on AGI, indicating Google’s leadership believes the next major milestone lies in more generalized, capable AI.