IT Home reported on October 21 that Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced last Thursday that the team responsible for the company's Gemini AI assistant application will be transferred to its DeepMind research lab to continue to integrate the company's various teams working in the field of artificial intelligence.
In a blog post, Pichai said the company is simplifying its structure to "continuously accelerate the pace of AI development." He also announced that Prabhakar Raghavan, the top leader of Google's search and advertising division, will leave the position after four years of leading the company's flagship business to take on the role of Google's chief technology officer.
Nick Fox, a veteran Google executive who served as a search deputy under Laghaven, will succeed Laghaven at the helm of the company's search, advertising, mapping and shopping services.
Google has long dominated the global search engine, but its performance in launching generative AI tools and services over the past two years is considered to lag behind startups like Microsoft and OpenAI. To remain competitive in the new competitive environment, Google must carefully approach the expansion of its AI business to avoid impacting its core monetization model. In the announcement, Pichai positioned the restructuring as a measure to accelerate the company's development in the field of artificial intelligence.
IT Home notes that over the past six months, Google has been integrating its AI-focused team, seeking to improve the Gemini model to challenge companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. In April of this year, the company moved its modeling, research, and responsible AI teams to the DeepMind division. Soon after, DeepMind was merged with Google Brain, another research arm within Google.
Founded in London in 2010 as an academic research lab, DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014. In recent years, DeepMind has gradually shifted from being initially research-driven to being product development-driven.
Eli Collins, DeepMind's vice president of product, said in an interview with Bloomberg last month that many of Google's top research labs, both inside and outside Google, are now product companies. He said DeepMind had to "pick up the pace" to keep up with the pace of AI innovation.
At the same time, Google is facing increasing antitrust scrutiny from federal officials. In August, Google lost a lawsuit in which the U.S. Department of Justice accused the company of illegally monopolizing the online search and advertising market. In September, another trial against Google's dominance in the online ad exchange technology space ended, and a verdict is expected by the end of the year.