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Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

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Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#391

Post by ilovebigfish »

wernsey wrote: post #287

Just some random tidbit: When I was in high school I bought every computer gaming magazine I could get my hands on and could afford with my allowance. So when Deepmind first made headlines I recalled an article in the UK magazine, Edge, which had an article about a game called Republic being developed by a team of former Bullfrog employees lead by one Demis Hassabis. Out of interest, I just checked Internet Archive,…

1. Never knew David Silver was there as well 2. They look like Depeche Mode in an alternate universe

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#393

Post by frollogaston »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #377
frollogaston wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of me thinks Google's entire problem is crappy internal tooling, not really an anti-innovation environment. Just making a dev take 2x as long to get something done has a bigger effect than you'd think. With LLMs it's more like 10x now because even Gemini doesn't understand Google-internal tooling.

I have a friend at Google DeepMind who tells me that Google believes in AGI/superintelligence just as much as HN does, which is probably why no one with conviction wants to work there.

How much belief is that? I tend to skip the HN posts that are about AI.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#394

Post by re-thc »

brandall10 wrote: post #334
ra7 wrote: post #64

It seems like the real news is Jeff and Sanjay are leaving Google, and Demis is effectively replacing Jeff as Chief Scientist for all of Alphabet. The bigger deal is the departure of Jeff and Sanjay, rather than Demis moving into a different role.

Yeah, a bit surprised that the top comments aren't discussing losing Dean, he's been a figurehead for the company for decades. It's like Apple losing Ive in a way. EDIT: "figurehead" - that's all I meant. A notable, public figure from the company who is credited with having a significant impact on its evolution. I'm not making a judgement call on his departure, or Ive's, being good or bad. That said... just give it a…

> It's like Apple losing Ive in a way.

Are you sure we should compare it like this? Not sure it implies what you think it does...

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#395

Post by ai_fry_ur_brain »

conradkay wrote: post #351
xnx wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data centers, TPUs, customers, data streams, more money than god, most mature crawler system

Are any of those advantages getting stronger over time? I guess TPUs but Google is selling several gigawatts to Anthropic

The money is in selling compute not using it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a mark.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#396

Post by oblio »

gandalfgeek wrote: post #371

Wow. Jeff and Sanjay both departing. Truly end of a golden era. There is an entire cohort of work-optional very senior engineers for whom one of the last reasons for hanging on was "at least Jeff and Sanjay are around".

Google will be considered "the new IBM" in 20 years.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#397

Post by solenoid0937 »

frollogaston wrote: post #393
solenoid0937 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend at Google DeepMind who tells me that Google believes in AGI/superintelligence just as much as HN does, which is probably why no one with conviction wants to work there.

How much belief is that? I tend to skip the HN posts that are about AI.

Most of HN does not take the idea of superintelligence seriously, and until this year did not take the idea of AGI seriously.

I think LessWrong is a much better community for rational takes on AI, they've been reasoning about these risks for years under a much more sound logical framework

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#398

Post by crossroadsguy »

brandall10 wrote: post #334
ra7 wrote: post #64

It seems like the real news is Jeff and Sanjay are leaving Google, and Demis is effectively replacing Jeff as Chief Scientist for all of Alphabet. The bigger deal is the departure of Jeff and Sanjay, rather than Demis moving into a different role.

Yeah, a bit surprised that the top comments aren't discussing losing Dean, he's been a figurehead for the company for decades. It's like Apple losing Ive in a way. EDIT: "figurehead" - that's all I meant. A notable, public figure from the company who is credited with having a significant impact on its evolution. I'm not making a judgement call on his departure, or Ive's, being good or bad. That said... just give it a…

Like Ive? So you mean it’s good for Google?

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#399

Post by gffrd »

re-thc wrote: post #394
brandall10 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a bit surprised that the top comments aren't discussing losing Dean, he's been a figurehead for the company for decades. It's like Apple losing Ive in a way. EDIT: "figurehead" - that's all I meant. A notable, public figure from the company who is credited with having a significant impact on its evolution. I'm not making a judgement call on his departure, or Ive's, being good or bad. That said... just give it a…

> It's like Apple losing Ive in a way. Are you sure we should compare it like this? Not sure it implies what you think it does...

Tell us what we’re missing.

Re: Changes at Google DeepMind: Demis Hassabis from CEO to Chair, Jeff Dean departs

#400

Post by re-thc »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #378
brandall10 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, a bit surprised that the top comments aren't discussing losing Dean, he's been a figurehead for the company for decades. It's like Apple losing Ive in a way. EDIT: "figurehead" - that's all I meant. A notable, public figure from the company who is credited with having a significant impact on its evolution. I'm not making a judgement call on his departure, or Ive's, being good or bad. That said... just give it a…

Losing Ive was probably a good thing for Apple. I often feel that after a few years these big guys have done what they could do and somebody else can take it from there. So far even losing Jobs didn’t hurt Apple as it looks.

> So far even losing Jobs didn’t hurt Apple as it looks.

Who knows? Pure speculation? You can also say if Jobs was still around they could have 10x-ed it even further?

Apple car could have been a thing? Apple could have been way ahead and actually competing in AI and data centers? Who knows what else Jobs could have came up with?

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