Alphabet's Google has appointed Koray Kavukcuoglu, the current Chief Technology Officer of its DeepMind AI lab, to the newly created position of Chief AI Architect. In addition to this new role, Kavukcuoglu will also serve as a new Senior Vice President, reporting directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. This strategic move aims to bolster Google's AI-powered product development as artificial intelligence transitions into a phase of mainstream adoption.

Kavukcuoglu, who will relocate from London to California, will maintain his responsibilities as Google DeepMind's CTO, continuing to report to DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. According to a memo from Pichai, Kavukcuoglu's expanded role is designed to "accelerate how we bring our world-leading models into our products, with the goal of more seamless integration, faster iteration, and greater efficiency."

This appointment comes as Alphabet faces significant market pressure to demonstrate financial returns on its substantial AI-related capital expenditures, projected to reach $75 billion this year. The company is also navigating competition from other AI offerings and antitrust scrutiny. At its recent annual I/O conference in May, Google showcased its commitment to AI by announcing plans to integrate artificial intelligence more broadly for web surfers, teasing a $249.99-a-month subscription for AI power users, and demoing new smart glasses.

Pichai highlighted in the memo that Alphabet is "entering a new phase of the AI platform shift." He had previously commented that the rise of generative AI does not entirely supplant online search. In a significant development, Google recently signed a deal to supply computing capacity to its major AI rival, OpenAI, through its cloud service, marking a notable collaboration between the two AI sector leaders.