Google reorganizes Android, Chrome and Pixel teams; DeepMind to now handle AI development

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Google is finally stepping out of its comfort zone to provide an advanced AI experience to its consumers. With advancements in technology, the AI race, and the need to fulfil consumer needs, Google has announced a major organisational change by merging its hardware and software teams together as one. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai made the announcement with the motivation to provide high-quality services to their users as well as partners, especially in the AI space.

According to an internal email by Sundar Pichai (via9to5Mac), the company has announced the merging of Google Research with teams in DeepMind to advance its AI experiences with the Gemini model. The merger will be called “Platforms & Devices” which will include teams from Android, Chrome, Pixel, and other company-wide services. Pichai said that the merger will bring “higher quality products and experiences for our users and partners.” He further added that the move will help the company “turbocharge the Android and Chrome ecosystems.”

The new merged team will be headed by Rick Osterloh who previously looked for Google's hardware efforts. Hiroshi Lockheimer will be shifted to new projects across Alphabet. Sameer Samat will now be heading the Android ecosystem. The Verge reported that the merger was suggested by Osterloh and Lockheimer two years ago. Now Lockheimer said regarding the organisational shift “felt like the right time.”

Previously, Google had several different teams building their own AI models. But going forward, all "compute-intensive model building" will be handled by the research laboratory known as DeepMind. This move could potentially allow the team members to build powerful AI models with effective collaboration and team building.

Google is streamlining its AI efforts with a central team where AI models will be easily accessible to other teams to build intuitive and advanced applications. Furthermore, with combined efforts, teams would be able to deliver new innovations faster with more