Jeff Dean and three others left Google to found 'Discovery Loop,' a company aiming to innovate with AI.

Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind who was involved in the development of Gemini and other projects, has announced his departure from Google DeepMind and the launch of Discovery Loop , a public benefit corporation focused on AI.

Introducing Discovery Loop ♾. We're building AI to run experiments at unprecedented scale and to solve the biggest bottlenecks in science and engineering.

Our founders @JeffDean , @Sanjay_Ghemawat , @quocleix , @OriolVinyalsML helped build the AI infrastructure and models that… pic.twitter.com/Y3FUlMLTbf

— Discovery Loop (@DiscoLoopAI) August 5, 2026

Announcing Discovery Loop!

I am very excited to announce that, along with my longtime friends and collaborators @Sanjay_Ghemawat , @OriolVinyalsML and @quocleix , we are founding Discovery Loop ( @DiscoLoopAI ), a Public Benefit Corporation whose mission is to automate machine… pic.twitter.com/ancoplyNvN

— Jeff Dean (@JeffDean) August 5, 2026

Jeff Dean Leaves Google to Automate the Scientific Method With Discovery Loop – Unite.AI
https://www.unite.ai/jeff-dean-leaves-google-to-automate-the-scientific-method-with-discovery-loop/

According to the company's official X account and Dean, Discovery Loop's mission is 'to automate machine learning, science, and engineering to accelerate discovery and progress.'

In addition to Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat , Oriol Viñals , and Kwok Lee will be joining Discovery Loop.

Dean said, 'I have worked with Google for 30 years, from 2014 to 2015, contributing to the creation of some of the world's most widely used products, infrastructure, and AI models. I am thrilled to now be able to dedicate myself to this ambitious project.'

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, expressed his gratitude to Dean and others, and stated that Google will support Discovery Loop's efforts as a founding investor and cloud partner.

I also want to give a huge thanks to the incomparable @JeffDean after an incredible 27-year run at Google. He's off to start his own public benefit corporation with @Sanjay_Ghemawat focused on accelerating discoveries across ML, science, & engineering. @Google will support as a…

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) August 5, 2026

Viñals, who joined Google 13 years ago at Dean's invitation, commented, 'I am truly grateful to everyone who made Google DeepMind feel like home. Now it's time to try something new and do something bold.'

Thirteen years ago, a quick email exchange with @JeffDean brought me to @Google . After an unforgettable journey from Brain, to DeepMind, and to @GoogleDeepMind , working on seq2seq or distillation, and co-leading huge projects such as AlphaStar, and Gemini, I'm saying goodbye to… pic.twitter.com/v2zK39buQ1

— Oriol Vinyals (@OriolVinyalsML) August 5, 2026