Google LLC is reorganizing some key parts of its company, and it’s no surprise to learn that the changes are being driven by its ambitions to become a major player in artificial intelligence.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and parent Alphabet Inc., today announced through a blog post that he’s consolidating the teams that focus on building AI models across its Research and DeepMind units into a single organization. With the move, Google’s Responsible AI team, which focuses on AI safety, will shift from its Research organization to the DeepMind unit, so those experts can collaborate more effectively with the teams responsible for designing, building and training its Gemini generative AI models.

In addition, the company is merging its platform and hardware teams into a single Platform and Devices unit, effectively unifying its Android, Chrome and ChromeOS platform development teams with hardware projects such as its Pixel devices.

According to Pichai, the changes will help to “simplify decisions” at the company and enable the respective teams to move much faster.

Streamlined AI development

Reuters reported that the reorganization of Google’s AI teams further streamlines model development within the organization. Last year, the company combined its Brain unit, which sat within the AI Research group, with DeepMind to create a bigger AI team that’s focused on model development.

Now, the remaining teams that work within the AI Research group will also merge with DeepMind. The Responsible AI teams are primarily responsible for building rules for developing AI in a way that’s safe and ethical.

Business Insider reported that the move will give considerably more power to DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis. Before the merger with Brain and DeepMind last year, Hassabis reportedly ran DeepMind with a much bigger degree of independence, and he fought to maintain that, but now he is right at the center of Google’s AI plans.

Hassabis’ DeepMind unit is the creator of Google’s family of Gemini generative AI models, which were announced late last year and are helping the company to compete with OpenAI and other fast-moving AI startups that are encroaching on Google’s interests in search and other areas.

In his blog post, Pichai said the change should help Google to become more competitive by “concentrating compute-intensive model building in one place.” Business Insider says the reorganization may also help to reduce internal squabbles in the company, where different teams are reportedly competing with one another for access to Google Cloud compute resources.

Platforms and Devices moves

The merger of two of Google’s largest product units was announced on the same day, and will see the devices and services group that is responsible for the development of hardware products like the Pixel smartphone and Fitbit wearables merge with the organization that runs Android and Chrome.

This is an equally big move because the two units are among the biggest within Google, and they’re now being pulled together under the much larger “Platforms and Devices” umbrella. The executive responsible for this unit is Rick Osterloh, who previously oversaw hardware development, and therefore accumulates more power within the company. Hiroshi Lockheimer, who was in charge of the Android and Chrome group, will stay on at Google but switch focus to other projects, Pichai revealed.

A report by The Information suggests that the move will likely result in Google’s Pixel team getting much more influence and greater access to resources than before. It notes that the Android unit has traditionally always been much more important than Pixel, as it essentially spearheads the development of every smartphone in the world that isn’t an Apple Inc. device, including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s phones. It’s through the Android unit that Google is able to preinstall all of its key applications, such as Google Search and the Google Play store, on every Android phone, generating huge amounts of revenue for the company.

In contrast, Pixel has a tiny market share, and has mostly served as a kind of insurance policy for Google in case Samsung ever decided to drop Android and create its own operating system, as well as a goad to other device makers to up their game.

But with Android’s market share in key areas like the U.S. getting weaker, and with Pixel sales unable to compensate, Pichai has apparently decided to make changes, and the result should be a greater prioritization of Pixel development.

The change will undoubtedly cause concern at Samsung, and Pichai did his best to reassure that company that the reorganization will help bring its new innovations to partners more quickly.

Whether or not Samsung can be convinced that increased focus on Pixel devices will somehow help it remains to be seen, but Google may well have other things in mind for its Pixel teams. According to The Information, Pichai has become worried that AI is driving the development of a new class of devices, with OpenAI reportedly working on building its own, AI-powered hardware, and companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. looking to use AI to develop more powerful wearable devices. It suggests that today’s reorganization could enable Google’s Android and AI teams collaborate with the Pixel team more effectively to create a Google-brand device to counter those developments.

That may explain why another executive, Sameer Samat, has been promoted to the title of president of Android Ecosystems and will lead collaboration with Google’s Android partners. His job will primarily involve maintaining the firewall between Google’s Pixel and Android groups. That’s the company’s primary way of avoiding giving its own hardware products special treatment over those of its partners.

Osterloh told The Verge that the reorganization makes sense for a number of reasons, and of course, AI is one of them. According to the executive, the consolidation of Google’s hardware teams with the Android groups will help the company to “do full-stack innovation when that’s necessary.” He provides the example of the Pixel smartphone’s camera, where designers require deep knowledge of the hardware systems and every layer of the software stack.

Google is likely to streamline its internal operations further as AI becomes more important to the company. Earlier this week, Ruth Porat, Google’s president, chief investment officer and chief financial officer, announced via an internal memo that there will be changes to the company’s financial teams, with an unannounced number of job cuts to be expected. According to Porat, the changes were necessary as Google realigns its priorities around AI.

Photo: Google