- Google is consolidating more parts of the company in an effort to move more quickly in the AI space.
- Google’s head of DeepMind will get more power, and the head of Pixel will also oversee Android.
- This change adds more powerful features behind some key Google products and could help them launch more quickly.
Googleplex is in flux.
CEO Sundar Pichai announced a series of reorganizations in a memo to staff on Thursday, but surprisingly, Google says this is all happening because of artificial intelligence. There is.
Pichai said the changes, which involve consolidating different parts of the company, will help Google “simplify decision-making” and move faster.
This includes further integration of the central AI team. Last year, Google merged Brain and DeepMind within its AI Research group to create a new superunit focused on building AI models.
Pichai said Thursday that a team within Research that works on building AI models will also be merged with Google DeepMind. The Responsible AI team, which sets the rules for developing AI safely and ethically, will also move from Research to Google DeepMind, he said.
Overall, more control will be given to Demis Hassabis, who heads Google DeepMind. Before last year’s merger, Hassabis ran DeepMind at arm’s length with Google — a distance he has fought for years to maintain — and now he is the central figure in the company’s AI push. It has become.
Hassabis quickly became Google’s MVP, with his division developing AI models such as Gemini that help the company compete with OpenAI and other competitors. He also helps turn those models into products.
Interestingly, Pichai said this change should help by “centralizing computationally intensive model building in one place.” This could also help with a problem that has been festering within Google for some time: the scramble for computing resources.
Google’s Pixel chief also gains more power
Google is also looking to combine two of its large product units. The Devices and Services group, which oversees hardware products such as Pixel devices and Fitbit wearables, will be integrated with the parts of the business that run Android and Chrome.
This is a big deal. These two giant organizations are now merging under the banner “Platforms and Devices.” Rick Osterloh, who previously oversaw hardware, will oversee both groups. Hiroshi Lockheimer, who led the Android and Chrome groups, will remain at Google but will oversee other projects within the company, Pichai said.
Sameer Samat has also been promoted to ‘President, Android Ecosystem’ and will work with all of Google’s Android partners. He will play a key role in maintaining the firewall between the Pixel group and the Android group, long seen as a way to keep Google from giving its hardware any more special treatment than its competitors. It’s been working (Osterloh promised The Verge the firewall would be maintained).
As Google continues to reinvent itself around AI, expect further restructuring.
On Wednesday, Google’s finance chief Ruth Porat told staff in the finance group that there would be a reorganization that would include some layoffs, BI first reported. Porat said the changes were made as the company realigned its priorities around AI, according to employees who saw the memo.
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