Google appoints new Gemini 4 leader as Gemini co‑heads depart

Key Points

• Alphabet names DeepMind veteran Koray Kavukcuoglu as head of Gemini 4.
• Jeff Dean and Oriol Vinyals resign as Gemini co‑technical leads.
• Dean and Vinyals co‑found AI research startup Discovery Loop, backed by multiple VCs and Alphabet.
• DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis shifts to chair of DeepMind and Alphabet chief scientist.
• Google’s shares drop about 5% after the leadership changes.
• Discovery Loop aims to automate scientific discovery by using AI to design and run experiments.
• Kavukcuoglu, a 13‑year DeepMind veteran, will report directly to Sundar Pichai.
• Gemini app retains over 950 million monthly users despite internal turmoil.