Days after Google unveiled its first Gemini chatbot in 2023 to compete with ChatGPT, Jeff Dean went to an AI conference where he was promptly swarmed by attendees. Current and former employees said morale inside Google dipped following the company’s AI leadership shakeup and predicted the loss of Dean would make it more difficult to recruit top AI talent. As a co-founder of Google Brain in 2011, Dean was a face of the company’s AI efforts for 15 years. With his own startup, Dean aims to use AI to automate difficult science and engineering tasks. “Here, you’re losing a Jeff Dean, but you’re also gaining a Jeff Dean elsewhere in the Alphabet family.”