Jeff Dean leaves Google to found Discovery Loop

techAug 5, 202640139

Google chief scientist Jeff Dean is leaving the company after 27 years to co-found a startup called Discovery Loop with Google senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat, Sundar Pichai said in a company memo. Dean said Discovery Loop will be organized as a public benefit corporation focused on applying AI to science and engineering and accelerating discoveries. Google confirmed the departure is on friendly terms, will invest in the new company, and according to the New York Times the startup secured seed backing from Radical Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and other investors while Google will retain a stake. The exits come as Google reshuffles AI leadership: Demis Hassabis moves into a chairman role at DeepMind and assumes the title chief scientist of Alphabet, and Koray Kavukcuoglu is promoted to head the AI division and will lead development of Gemini 4. Sundar Pichai framed the changes as part of Google navigating a rapidly evolving AI landscape while also investing heavily in infrastructure; the company recently forecast full-year capital expenditures of up to $205 billion and reported strong cloud growth driven by AI demand. Dean and Ghemawat said the new effort will automate loops of discovery in machine learning, science, and engineering, though specific products and timelines have not been announced.

WIRED

@wired.com

Jeff Dean and other high-profile Google executives have founded Discovery Loop, a startup that will seek AI-powered breakthroughs in everything from drug discovery to chip design.

422h ago

diggleruk.bsky.social6

This was *always* the promise, not the ubiquitous AI slop we actually got.

D. Juschka2

They want to make billions too!

mtnthc.bsky.social1

When the grifting is good get your share

Velvet Hydrangea1

They look pretty happy for guys who just set their money on fire.

Terry Shull (she/her/hers)1

May they find the bubble bursting in their faces.

benfranklinsaid.bsky.social1

Interesting. These guys are heavy hitters.

George Pearkes

@peark.es

"Jeff Dean, one of Google’s earliest employees and an architect of its artificial-intelligence strategy for the past 15 years, is leaving the company to launch an AI startup focused on scientific discovery."

323h ago

Alice Lastname1

Pretty sure Yan Lecun showed him the light, like, hey Jeff, making $5M a year is nice, but let me tell you making $500M a year would be even nicer.

Jonathan1

Jeff and Sanjay's work is foundational to so much of what made Google the engineering company it is.

Quoting this

Joel Wertheimer2

Acquired listeners all texting each other right now

Steven Levy

@stevenlevy.bsky.social

Here's a shattering Jeff Dean fact: Google's top scientist, along with Sanjay Ghemawat and 2 other top AI researcher are leaving Google to form Discovery Loop, a startup that hopes to automate the scientific method so AI can create breakthroughs in multiple fields. www.wired.com/story/jeff-d...

113h ago

Quoting this

ddɐ˙ʎʞsʞɔɐlq˙uǝʌs@3

LMAO (not), like rats fleeing a perpetually sinking ship to jump on a new graft.

FletcherDodge2

Oh good! I was hoping we'd get yet another AI company.

sail, body up to the clouds (Ryan) 🗺️🕹️🏳️‍🌈

@ullerrm.shitpost.nexus

“jeff dean leaving google” sure is a four word sentence

122h ago

arborelia

@arborelia.net

Jeff Dean's defense of why Google Scholar deadnames trans people was: "We have to ensure accurate information" he also fired people who raised concerns about deadnaming internally he wasn't even responsible for Scholar, fighting against trans researchers was a side project for him

112h ago

David P. Reichert

@david-p-reichert.bsky.social

"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." wat www.axios.com/2026/08/05/g...

82h ago

Quoting this

Benjamin Riley6

Anyone who listened to @reckless.bsky.social interview of Sundar Pichai in May might have guessed this was coming. The enterprise-agentic direction of Big Tech is hard to align with the quest for “AGI,” especially if you’re interested in world modeling (see LeCun).

Cameron

@cameron.stream

Jeff Dean is leaving Google, Demis is stepping back from day-to-day DeepMind operations. What the hell is going on at Google dude

71h ago

Deborah Lynn

@mrsdeborahlynn.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/jeff-d... 4 of Google’s Top AI Brains Are Leaving—and Launching Their Own AI Startup. An automated version of the scientific method. “You propose an experiment, you implement what you need to run the experiment, you evaluate the experiment, and then you get results from that.

42h ago

Sung Kim

@sungkim.bsky.social

Jeff Dean, Google’s former chief scientist, is co-founding a new company called Discovery Loop. Its initial goal is to automate machine-learning research and engineering, essentially applying a bounded form of recursive self-improvement to AI development.

61h ago

John

@roqueig.bsky.social

$GOOGL down quickly on news of more (and much more important name) departures and changes Hassabis to Chairman of DeepMind and Jeff Dean departing

12h ago

grainy dispatch

@grainydispatch.bsky.social

JUST IN: JEFF DEAN AND THREE VETERAN AI STAFFERS DEPART GOOGLE TO FOUND STARTUP, AS PER REUTERS X

3h ago

Greg Linden

@glinden.bsky.social

Noble mission, though it's a little hard to tell what specific products will be: "scientific research and engineering tasks much more rapidly ... by automating the loops of discovery ... much more rapid advances across countless fields of science." www.discoveryloop.com

1h ago

robot2trade

@robot2trade.bsky.social

$GOOGL Slides on Talent News Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist) leaves to start own AI company. Other veteran AI talent also departing. Hassabis steps down as DeepMind CEO. Stock -4%+. @Google #GOOGL

11h ago

Madhav

@madhav.bsky.social

Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat are leaving Google, apparently. Dean was employee #30 and along with Ghemawat developed a ton of stuff at Google, including their core distributed computing infra, MapReduce, BigTable etc

11h ago

News 📰

@some-news.bsky.social

The Google parent saw shares drop after news that DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis would take on a bigger role and a veteran AI research Jeff Dean is leaving.

11h ago

3 sources

cnbc.comGoogle chief scientist Jeff Dean leaving in AI reshuffle after 27 years at company axios.comGoogle DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping down techmeme.comDiscovery Loop, co-founded by Jeff Dean, is backed by seed funding from Radical Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and others; Google also has a stake in the company (Cade Metz/New York Times)

Jeff Dean leaves Google to found Discovery Looptech

Jeff Dean leaves Google to found Discovery Loop

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