Google announces restructuring to accelerate AI initiatives
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a series of structural changes and leadership appointments aimed at accelerating the company’s AI initiatives.
The restructuring sees the Gemini app team, led by Sissie Hsiao, joining Google DeepMind under the leadership of Demis Hassabis.
“Bringing the teams closer together will improve feedback loops, enable fast deployment of our new models in the Gemini app, make our post-training work proceed more efficiently and build on our great product momentum,” Pichai explained.
Additionally, the Assistant teams focusing on devices and home experiences will be integrated into the Platforms & Devices division. This reorganisation aims to align these teams more closely with the product surfaces they are developing for and consolidate AI smart home initiatives at Google under one umbrella.
Prabhakar Raghavan, a 12-year Google veteran, will transition from his current role to become the Chief Technologist at Google. Pichai praised Raghavan’s contributions, highlighting his leadership across various divisions including Research, Workspace, Ads, and Knowledge & Information (K&I).
“Prabhakar’s leadership journey at Google has been remarkable,” Pichai noted. “He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past one billion users.”
Taking the helm of the K&I division will be Nick Fox, a long-standing Googler and member of Raghavan’s leadership team. Fox’s appointment as SVP of K&I comes on the back of his extensive experience across various facets of the company, including Product and Design in Search and Assistant, as well as Shopping, Travel, and Payments products.
“Nick has been instrumental in shaping Google’s AI product roadmap and collaborating closely with Prabhakar and his leadership team on K&I’s strategy,” comments Pichai. “I frequently turn to Nick to tackle our most challenging product questions and he consistently delivers progress with tenacity, speed, and optimism.”
The restructuring comes amid a flurry of AI-driven innovations across Google’s product lineup. Recent developments include the viral success of NotebookLM with Audio Overviews, enhancements to information discovery in Search and Lens, the launch of a revamped Google Shopping platform tailored for the AI era, advancements like AlphaProteo that could revolutionise protein design, and updates to the Gemini family of models.
Pichai also highlighted a significant milestone in Google’s healthcare AI initiatives, revealing that their AI system for detecting diabetic retinopathy has conducted 600,000 screenings to date. The company plans to expand access to this technology across India and Thailand.
“AI moves faster than any technology before it. To keep increasing the pace of progress, we’ve been making shifts to simplify our structures along the way,” Pichai explained.
(Photo by Mitchell Luo)
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