Google AI chief Jeff Dean leaves, triggering talent exodus

Senior Google Fellow Jeff Dean, who led DeepMind and the Gemini project for 27 years, announced his departure on August 5, taking three top researchers to launch the startup Discovery Loop. The news sent Alphabet’s share price down more than a trillion RMB in intraday trading and coincided with a delay to the Gemini 3.5 Pro model, reflecting internal morale challenges.

The leadership change follows a broader wave of AI talent moving away from large tech firms. DeepMind’s day‑to‑day operations are now overseen by Koray Kavukcuoglu, a former missile‑engineer turned AI researcher. In China, senior engineers from Alibaba, ByteDance, Baidu and DeepSeek have also left to start new ventures or join rivals, often securing valuations in the tens of billions of dollars. The trend highlights intense competition for top AI scientists and could reshape research priorities across the industry.