Google Rushes Key AI Figures to U.S. Headquarters Amid Fears of Falling Behind in the AI Race

[Financial News]  Google is bringing key figures from its artificial intelligence business to its headquarters in Mountain View, California. It is also relocating some of them from as far away as the United Kingdom to gain an edge in its AI competition with Upwardy and OpenAI. 
Foreign media reported on the 5th, local time, that the move to centralize leadership is intended to ease decision-making delays and internal friction that arose when researchers were based on different continents, even after Mountain View's Google Brain and London's DeepMind were merged into Google DeepMind in 2023.
Google appointed Koray Kavukcuoglu, who moved to Mountain View last year, to oversee its vast AI research and operations. Demis Hassabis, DeepMind's co-founder and longtime CEO, is stepping back from day-to-day operations and will serve as chair of Google DeepMind and chief scientist at Alphabet Inc. Other key personnel, including Sebastian Borge, who led a major AI coding project, have also moved from the UK to Mountain View, while some have left the London headquarters entirely.
Google is currently facing difficulties compared with its rivals, including delays of several months in launching its flagship AI models and falling behind in the coding automation market. As dissatisfaction grows, researchers are leaving the company, and key talent, including legendary engineer Jeff Dean, has founded startups or moved to competitors. DeepMind's well-known researcher David Silver recently founded Ineffable Intelligence after securing $1.1 billion in seed funding, while Chief Experience Officer Simon Butong is also reportedly preparing to move to the London-based startup CuspAI.
Since Google has said it will invest up to $205 billion this year in AI-related capital expenditures alone, the newly appointed head, Kavukcuoglu, faces the heavy responsibility of delivering results quickly.
As the leadership team behind Gemini, Google's core AI model, gathers in one place, real authority is also shifting toward Kavukcuoglu. Internal accounts say that CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin have been stationed on a Gemini-only floor to encourage development, while Hassabis has been seen less often. At a recent event, Brin said that his role is to generate ideas, while Kavukcuoglu is responsible for organizing the company and bringing products to market.
Google said London will remain an important AI hub, and that Chair Hassabis will stay at the company's new London office to focus on AI vision and strategy. Kavukcuoglu, the new head, is a veteran who led DeepMind's deep learning team and was promoted to chief AI architect last year. As key leaders depart, he is the only remaining co-leader of Gemini and will now lead Google's AI counteroffensive.
[email protected] Yoon Jae-jun Reporter