With fresh leadership, Google aims to create new products based on Gemini.
CANADA - 2025/02/03: In this photo illustration, the Google Gemini AI logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) CANADA - 2025/02/03: In this photo illustration, the Google Gemini AI logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
On the heels of releasing its most capable AI model yet, Google is making some changes to the Gemini team. A new report from Semafor reveals that longtime Googler Sissie Hsiao will step down from her role leading the Gemini team effective immediately. In her place, Google is appointing Josh Woodward, who currently leads Google Labs.
According to a memo from DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, this change is designed to "sharpen our focus on the next evolution of the Gemini app." This new responsibility won't take Woodward away from his role at Google Labs—he will remain in charge of that division while leading the Gemini team.
Meanwhile, Hsiao says in a message to employees that she is happy with "Chapter 1" of the Bard story and is optimistic for Woodward's "Chapter 2." Hsiao won't be involved in Google's AI efforts for now—she's opted to take some time off before returning to Google in a new role.
Hsiao has been at Google for 19 years and was tasked with building Google's chatbot in 2022. At the time, Google was reeling after ChatGPT took the world by storm using the very transformer architecture that Google originally invented. Initially, the team's chatbot efforts were known as Bard before being unified under the Gemini brand at the end of 2023.
This process has been a bit of a slog, with Google's models improving slowly while simultaneously worming their way into many beloved products. However, the sense inside the company is that Gemini has turned a corner with 2.5 Pro. While this model is still in the experimental stage, it has bested other models in academic benchmarks and has blown right past them in all-important vibemarks like LM Arena.
In his role leading Google Labs, Woodward oversaw the launch of Notebook LM, a popular generative AI tool that can provide answers and analysis based on user-supplied data. It can also generate a "podcast" style conversation based on the data that is both informative and creepy. This capability was recently added to the Gemini Deep Research tool.
A demo of Google's Project Mariner, which was developed by Woodward's group.
In addition to working on Notebook LM, Woodward’s team was involved with Google's Project Mariner, an experimental AI agent that can control the Chrome browser. Google and other major AI players see agentic systems as the next frontier in AI development, so it does make sense to bring someone with that experience in to lead the Gemini team during this crucial time.
Anyone who uses Google products has no doubt seen Gemini in existing apps, but most of Google's Gemini integrations so far boil down to adding a chat window so you can query Gemini about the content in a product like Drive or Gmail. Putting Woodward in charge suggests Google hopes to use the success of Notebook LM as a guide as it begins finding ways to turn its most capable AI model into new AI-powered products. Google may find that people are more receptive to generative AI when it backs a new experience rather than invading the apps they've already been using.