Google's Gemini AI assistant reached 1 billion users in record time, matching ChatGPT's milestone, as the company reshuffles its AI leadership with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis transitioning to chief scientist and chairman roles. The changes come amid pressure from co-founder Sergey Brin and others to catch up with rivals OpenAI and Anthropic.
Alphabet's top scientist Demis Hassabis has stepped down as DeepMind CEO after holding discussions with government officials and other AI lab leaders about forming an independent industry safety entity. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has reportedly been directing AI researchers to accelerate Gemini development following the leadership shake-up.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin issued a memo to DeepMind employees mandating that every Gemini engineer use internal AI agents for complex tasks, forming a specialized team to catch up to Anthropic's Claude Code capabilities.
