As ‘Demis Hassabis wanted to LEAVE Google alongside Jeff Dean’ speculations go viral; Hassabis shares his message to employees in a long LinkedIn post

Six days after Google announced that Sir Demis Hassabis was stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind, the story that has stuck is not the one Google wrote. It is the one circulating through investor group chats and London AI circles: that Hassabis wanted out entirely, at the same moment Jeff Dean walked, and was talked into a chairmanship instead. The claim originates with the Pathfounders newsletter, which reported on August 8 that industry sources believe Hassabis intended to exit alongside Dean, and that Google management feared the twin departure would gut the share price.Google has not addressed the report. What Hassabis has done, three days ago, is post a note on LinkedIn that reads like a man closing a chapter on his own terms. It restates the AGI framing from his internal memo almost word for word, points readers to the company blog, and says nothing about why the timing landed on a Wednesday evening in London, minutes before…