Sergey Brin takes AI matters in his own hands, tells Google staff to build the next frontier fast
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly pushing staff to go all-in on AI as the company struggles to compete against Anthropic and OpenAI. This report comes just days after key scientists including Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat left the company.
Google wants to bounce back in the AI race, and to do this, the company wants all hands on deck. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has reportedly been pushing employees to go all in on AI as the company tries to close the gap to Anthropic and OpenAI.
As per a Reuters report, in recent months, Brin has been trying to encourage Google’s key AI engineers to make advancements with the Gemini AI models. For those unaware, Gemini has struggled to match models from OpenAI and Anthropic that have made major gains in recent months.
Google is believed to have delayed the release of its next frontier model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, as it failed to meet internal goals in coding. At the same time, there is a big reshuffle happening within Google. Four of its key scientists, including Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, left recently to create their own AI startup. Google is also making changes to DeepMind.
Google had a meeting after Claude Mythos release
The report states that in April this year, Sergey Brin addressed hundreds of employees in a town hall after Anthropic released the Claude Mythos model, the most powerful AI model at the time.
Brin told Google DeepMind staff to move faster on Gemini as the company tried to play catch up. While the Google co-founder does not hold an executive title, he reportedly continues to have influence on Google’s model training efforts.
The Google co-founder had held a similar meeting with Google employees after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022.
While Gemini has seen rapid adoption globally, surpassing 1 billion users for the Gemini app, it remains behind when it comes to enterprise users. Enterprise users make up the bulk of revenue for AI companies and bring billions of dollars in revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic.
Google is moving some teams out of DeepMind
DeepMind, Google’s frontier AI lab, is also seeing changes. Recently, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis announced that he was stepping down from his role, and moving away from day-to-day management. Koray Kavukcuoglu who is a senior VP at DeepMind will be taking Hassabis’ responsibilities.
As per the report, at a unit-wide all-hands meeting after the reshuffle, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu sought to calm worried staff, most of whom learned of the change as it became public. They said that day-to-day work at the lab would remain the same and that Kavukcuoglu would continue to oversee Gemini.
In addition, several non-technical teams were said to be moving out of DeepMind and into Google’s corporate reporting structure. These changes mark a further reduction in DeepMind’s autonomy since Google acquired the London-based lab in 2014.
Despite the assurances, the meeting reportedly raised fresh concern among some employees that DeepMind was being absorbed more fully into Google. For a lab that had once encouraged staff to pursue ancillary projects, the message from the reorganisation was that the company wanted to reclaim model supremacy.
The shift also appears to have moved influence away from London, where DeepMind had long been based. Some London-based leaders felt their influence over Gemini’s technical direction had fallen after Hassabis reduced his involvement in the model and Kavukcuoglu relocated to Google’s headquarters in California.
Keep in mind that Google had caught up to the frontier in November last year with the Gemini 3 release, the company remains behind the newer models, such as Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. Meanwhile, Meta and Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI have also made advancements with their respective models, and Chinese players like Moonshot’s Kimi K3 have also shown progress.
Google wants to bounce back in the AI race, and to do this, the company wants all hands on deck. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has reportedly been pushing employees to go all in on AI as the company tries to close the gap to Anthropic and OpenAI.
As per a Reuters report, in recent months, Brin has been trying to encourage Google’s key AI engineers to make advancements with the Gemini AI models. For those unaware, Gemini has struggled to match models from OpenAI and Anthropic that have made major gains in recent months.
Google is believed to have delayed the release of its next frontier model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, as it failed to meet internal goals in coding. At the same time, there is a big reshuffle happening within Google. Four of its key scientists, including Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, left recently to create their own AI startup. Google is also making changes to DeepMind.
Google had a meeting after Claude Mythos release
The report states that in April this year, Sergey Brin addressed hundreds of employees in a town hall after Anthropic released the Claude Mythos model, the most powerful AI model at the time.
Brin told Google DeepMind staff to move faster on Gemini as the company tried to play catch up. While the Google co-founder does not hold an executive title, he reportedly continues to have influence on Google’s model training efforts.
The Google co-founder had held a similar meeting with Google employees after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022.
While Gemini has seen rapid adoption globally, surpassing 1 billion users for the Gemini app, it remains behind when it comes to enterprise users. Enterprise users make up the bulk of revenue for AI companies and bring billions of dollars in revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic.
Google is moving some teams out of DeepMind
DeepMind, Google’s frontier AI lab, is also seeing changes. Recently, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis announced that he was stepping down from his role, and moving away from day-to-day management. Koray Kavukcuoglu who is a senior VP at DeepMind will be taking Hassabis’ responsibilities.
As per the report, at a unit-wide all-hands meeting after the reshuffle, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu sought to calm worried staff, most of whom learned of the change as it became public. They said that day-to-day work at the lab would remain the same and that Kavukcuoglu would continue to oversee Gemini.
In addition, several non-technical teams were said to be moving out of DeepMind and into Google’s corporate reporting structure. These changes mark a further reduction in DeepMind’s autonomy since Google acquired the London-based lab in 2014.
Despite the assurances, the meeting reportedly raised fresh concern among some employees that DeepMind was being absorbed more fully into Google. For a lab that had once encouraged staff to pursue ancillary projects, the message from the reorganisation was that the company wanted to reclaim model supremacy.
The shift also appears to have moved influence away from London, where DeepMind had long been based. Some London-based leaders felt their influence over Gemini’s technical direction had fallen after Hassabis reduced his involvement in the model and Kavukcuoglu relocated to Google’s headquarters in California.
Keep in mind that Google had caught up to the frontier in November last year with the Gemini 3 release, the company remains behind the newer models, such as Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. Meanwhile, Meta and Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI have also made advancements with their respective models, and Chinese players like Moonshot’s Kimi K3 have also shown progress.
Google wants to bounce back in the AI race, and to do this, the company wants all hands on deck. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has reportedly been pushing employees to go all in on AI as the company tries to close the gap to Anthropic and OpenAI.
As per a Reuters report, in recent months, Brin has been trying to encourage Google’s key AI engineers to make advancements with the Gemini AI models. For those unaware, Gemini has struggled to match models from OpenAI and Anthropic that have made major gains in recent months.
Google is believed to have delayed the release of its next frontier model, Gemini 3.5 Pro, as it failed to meet internal goals in coding. At the same time, there is a big reshuffle happening within Google. Four of its key scientists, including Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, left recently to create their own AI startup. Google is also making changes to DeepMind.
Google had a meeting after Claude Mythos release
The report states that in April this year, Sergey Brin addressed hundreds of employees in a town hall after Anthropic released the Claude Mythos model, the most powerful AI model at the time.
Brin told Google DeepMind staff to move faster on Gemini as the company tried to play catch up. While the Google co-founder does not hold an executive title, he reportedly continues to have influence on Google’s model training efforts.
The Google co-founder had held a similar meeting with Google employees after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022.
While Gemini has seen rapid adoption globally, surpassing 1 billion users for the Gemini app, it remains behind when it comes to enterprise users. Enterprise users make up the bulk of revenue for AI companies and bring billions of dollars in revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic.
Google is moving some teams out of DeepMind
DeepMind, Google’s frontier AI lab, is also seeing changes. Recently, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis announced that he was stepping down from his role, and moving away from day-to-day management. Koray Kavukcuoglu who is a senior VP at DeepMind will be taking Hassabis’ responsibilities.
As per the report, at a unit-wide all-hands meeting after the reshuffle, Hassabis and Kavukcuoglu sought to calm worried staff, most of whom learned of the change as it became public. They said that day-to-day work at the lab would remain the same and that Kavukcuoglu would continue to oversee Gemini.
In addition, several non-technical teams were said to be moving out of DeepMind and into Google’s corporate reporting structure. These changes mark a further reduction in DeepMind’s autonomy since Google acquired the London-based lab in 2014.
Despite the assurances, the meeting reportedly raised fresh concern among some employees that DeepMind was being absorbed more fully into Google. For a lab that had once encouraged staff to pursue ancillary projects, the message from the reorganisation was that the company wanted to reclaim model supremacy.
The shift also appears to have moved influence away from London, where DeepMind had long been based. Some London-based leaders felt their influence over Gemini’s technical direction had fallen after Hassabis reduced his involvement in the model and Kavukcuoglu relocated to Google’s headquarters in California.
Keep in mind that Google had caught up to the frontier in November last year with the Gemini 3 release, the company remains behind the newer models, such as Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol. Meanwhile, Meta and Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI have also made advancements with their respective models, and Chinese players like Moonshot’s Kimi K3 have also shown progress.
