However, the employee added it had also blocked a paper that revealed vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s ChatGPT, over concerns the release seemed like a hostile tit-for-tat.
A person close to DeepMind said it did not block papers that discuss security vulnerabilities, adding that it routinely publishes such work under a “responsible disclosure policy,” in which researchers must give companies the chance to fix any flaws before making them public.
But the clampdown has unsettled some staffers, where success has long been measured through appearing in top-tier scientific journals. People with knowledge of the matter said the new review processes had contributed to some departures.
“If you can’t publish, it’s a career killer if you’re a researcher,” said a former researcher.
Some ex-staff added that projects focused on improving its Gemini suite of AI-infused products were increasingly prioritized in the internal battle for access to data sets and computing power.
In the past few years, Google has produced a range of AI-powered products that have impressed the markets. This includes improving its AI-generated summaries that appear above search results, to unveiling an “Astra” AI agent that can answer real-time queries across video, audio, and text.
The company’s share price has increased by as much as a third over the past year, though those gains pared back in recent weeks as concern over US tariffs hit tech stocks.
In recent years, Hassabis has balanced the desire of Google’s leaders to commercialize its breakthroughs with his life mission of trying to make artificial general intelligence—AI systems with abilities that can match or surpass humans.
“Anything that gets in the way of that he will remove,” said one current employee. “He tells people this is a company, not a university campus; if you want to work at a place like that, then leave.”
Additional reporting by George Hammond.
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