Sergey Brin urges Google to prioritise Gemini as AI competition intensifies

Google's parent company Alphabet has carried out major leadership changes and organisational restructuring at Google DeepMind to keep pace with OpenAI and Anthropic in the global artificial intelligence race. Meanwhile, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has urged AI division employees to prioritise the development of the Gemini model above all else.

According to a special report by Reuters, Brin has called on employees to work faster in several internal meetings over recent months. He has particularly emphasised closing the gap with competitors in AI advancement and restoring Gemini to the top position. During this period, pressure on Google has increased due to Anthropic's Claude Mythos and OpenAI's progress.

According to Reuters, Gemini briefly pulled ahead of rival models in November last year but later fell behind again. The release of Gemini's new flagship version was delayed by two months after internal tests showed weaker-than-expected performance in key areas including coding. At the same time, issues such as limitations in Google's computing capacity, lack of internal coordination and slower model releases have also come to light.

On August 5, Alphabet announced major changes in Google DeepMind's leadership. Demis Hassabis, who had been serving as the unit's CEO, has stepped back from day-to-day management to take on the role of chairman. He has been replaced by Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind's former chief technology officer, who now oversees daily operations while also serving as Alphabet's chief AI architect.

During this restructuring, several top AI researchers associated with Gemini have also left Google. Among them are Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le, who have founded a new venture called 'Discovery Loop'. Additionally, some DeepMind teams have been brought under Google's corporate structure, raising concerns that the research-focused unit's autonomy may be further reduced.

After Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, gave Kavukcuoglu the additional responsibility of chief AI architect in 2025, his role in Gemini's development and integrating AI into Google's products continued to grow. He will now also have the final say in DeepMind's key decisions.

Following the leadership change announcement, Alphabet's share price fell by nearly 4 percent. In subsequent meetings with employees, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu assured that no immediate major changes would occur to DeepMind's daily research activities. However, the recent organisational changes have made it clear that bringing Gemini back to the top of the AI race is one of Google's primary goals.