Sissie Hsiao, who led the development of Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, now recognised as Gemini has stepped down from her position, Vice President and General Manager of Gemini experiences and Google Assistant.
As reported by Reuters, Josh Woodward, who leads Google Labs and oversaw the launch of NotebookLM, Google’s popular tool that can turn text into a podcast-like show will replace Hsiao.
According to a spokesperson, Hsiao's decision comes amid her plans to take a short break and return to Google in a new role.
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Semafor reported that in a memo to the staff, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said the move will help the company focus on the evolution of the Gemini app.
Woodward will retain his role as head of Google Labs while shaping the next chapter of Gemini.
Previously, Google shifted the team behind the Gemini app to its AI research lab, DeepMind, as the search giant seemed to streamline its structure and better position itself in the generative AI race.
Last week, Gemini 2.5 blew away AI benchmarks held by competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.
It took the lead in Chatbot Arena, where users vote on their favourite large language model responses.
Related: Google rolls out Gemini 2.5 Pro (exp) to free users
