According to Business Insider, this Google move includes further consolidation of central AI teams. Last year, the company combined Brain – a group within its AI Research group – with DeepMind to form a new “super unit” focused on building AI models.
Now, Mr. Pichai said the research groups that build AI models will also be merged with DeepMind. Besides, the responsible AI groups, which develop rules for developing AI safely and ethically, were also transferred from AI Research to DeepMind.
The AI race is getting hotter among technology companies
As a result, things give more control to DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis. Before the merger last year, Hassabis ran DeepMind. After the merger, he remained front and center in the company's AI push.
In his statement, CEO Pichai said this change will help Google as they will "focus on building a computationally intensive model in one place".
Besides, Google is also merging its two major product units together. The devices and services group, which oversees hardware products like Pixel and Fitbit, will merge with the Android and Chrome business. The two organizations are coming together under the “Platforms and Devices” banner, and Rick Osterloh, who previously only oversaw hardware, will head the merged team. Android and Chrome team leader Hiroshi Lockheimer remains at Google but runs other projects across the company.
Sameer Samat has also been promoted to “President of Android Ecosystem” and works with all Android partners. He will play a key role in maintaining the firewall between the Pixel and Android teams, which is in place to prevent Google from giving special favor to its hardware over competitors.
Meanwhile, Google CFO Ruth Porat also informed employees in the finance team that there will be a reorganization that will result in some job cuts. One employee said that the content of the message from Porat indicated changes were being made as the company realigned priorities around AI.
