Joshua Achiam @jachiam0 · 3h
Re: Demis, Jeff Dean moves: I think a fair few folks are treating this as bearish for GDM and that is imho a misread. The prospect of reaching AGI and ASI is beginning to look increasingly overdetermined. Being in operational leadership roles to preside over an overdetermined outcome is no longer as high-leverage as being in a leadership role on the next frontier. Early AI/AGI/ASI leads will, over the next year, begin leaving what look like important leadership posts to go place their bets on what they think the most important thing will be.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet from Joshua Achiam commenting on personnel moves involving Demis Hassabis and Jeff Dean, arguing these should not be read as bearish for Google DeepMind but as early AI leaders repositioning for what they see as the next frontier now that AGI/ASI feels overdetermined.
Tenobrus @tenobrus · 29m
demis is ousted as deepmind CEO and jeff dean + sanjay are leaving google to start a ~neolab.
they're all being very careful to frame these as positive shifts. but there's no way in hell demis would have accepted this willingly, and there's no way Sundar happily accepted Jeff doing this as a totally independent new PBC rather than a bet under alphabet.
tough to see an interpretation other than jeff losing confidence in working on AGI under google.
very bad day for alphabet overall
[embedded image, left, cut off text — likely Demis Hassabis post]
"...and as we enter this pivotal moment, I'm stepping into a new role as Chair of Google DeepMind & Chief Scientist of Alphabet. This will allow me to focus on long-term strategy, and accelerating scientific breakthroughs, including leaning into my work at Isomorphic to help cure disease.
I'm excited that @koraykv will be stepping up to lead GDM as SVP, alongside @joshwoodward and our exec team. I could not be more excited and confident about our amazing next chapter! 🚀
blog.google/company-news/i..."
[Google 'G' logo]
[embedded image, right — Jeff Dean post]
"Announcing Discovery Loop!
I am very excited to announce that, along with my longtime friends and collaborators @Sanjay_Ghemawat, @OriolVinyalsML and @quocleix, we are founding Discovery Loop (@DiscoLoopAI), a Public Benefit Corporation whose mission is to automate machine learning, science, and engineering to accelerate discoveries and progress. The four of us have worked together for 14 to 30 years, and have helped build some of the world's most used products, infrastructure and AI models, and we're excited to turn our attention to this ambitious endeavor.
∞"
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet by tenobrus analyzing the DeepMind/Google leadership shakeup, arguing the framing of Demis Hassabis's move to Chairman/Chief Scientist and Jeff Dean's departure as voluntary and positive is implausible, interpreting it as a loss of confidence in Google's AGI trajectory. Includes embedded screenshots of Hassabis's own announcement and Jeff Dean's announcement of a new company, Discovery Loop, founded with Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le.
Andrew Curran @AndrewCurran_ · 21m
Shocking news! Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind, and Jeff Dean is leaving Google to start his own company. Sir Demis will be the new chief scientist.
[quoted/embedded text card]
Demis Hassabis is leaving his role as CEO of Google DeepMind to be the unit's Chairman. Chief scientist Jeff Dean and another Google AI executive are leaving to start their own company, which Google will invest in.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet reporting a leadership change at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis moving from CEO to chief scientist/chairman role, and Jeff Dean departing to start a new company backed by Google investment.
— quoting/summarizing Peter Thiel via NYT Opinion video (Ross Douthat, @DouthatNYT), plus start of a reply from Harlan Stewart (@HumanHarlan)
```
Jawwwn @jawwwn_ · 18h: "Peter Thiel: "2024 is the year @elonmusk stopped believing in Mars" "There was a conversation I had with Elon in 2024— if Trump doesn't win, I want to just leave the country." "Elon said, 'there's nowhere to go.'" "In 2024, Elon came to believe that if you went to Mars, the socialist US government, the woke AI, it would follow you to Mars." "It was the @demishassabis meeting— Demis tells Elon, 'I'm working on the most important project in the world— I'm building a superhuman AI.'" "Elon responds, 'I'm working on the most important project in the world— I'm turning us into interplanetary species.'" "Demis said, 'well, you know my AI will be able to follow you to Mars.'" "Then Elon sort of went quiet." Via @nytimes @DouthatNYT" [Embedded video: NYT Opinion clip, Peter Thiel being interviewed outdoors with palm trees, captioned "The future You can't", 2:38 duration. Engagement: 196 comments, 357 reposts, 4K likes, 1.1M views] Below, partially visible reply: Harlan Stewart @HumanHarlan · 4h: "Elon: I'll colonize mars to prevent our
extinction Demis: Won't work! Superintelligent AI, like the one I'm trying to build, could still make us extinct Elon: Damn good point... I guess I will... now also try to build superintelligent AI that might make us extinct? Yeah"
```
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Peter Thiel recounts (via NYT Opinion interview) an anecdote about Elon Musk losing faith in Mars colonization as an escape from "woke AI" after Demis Hassabis pointed out superhuman AI would reach Mars too. Notable for AI-and-space-colonization discourse and Thiel/Musk/Hassabis dynamics; relevant to broader AGI-race and AI-governance threads in the archive. Full text of the Harlan Stewart reply (cut off in the previous screenshot), a sardonic paraphrase of the Thiel-relayed Musk/Hassabis Mars-vs-AI exchange, mocking the logic that leads Musk toward building AGI himself (xAI) despite extinction concerns. Continues the same thread as the prior screenshot.
