An article summarized by Wired:

Google AI pioneer Jeff Dean is leaving the company after nearly 27 years to launch a new AI startup called Discovery Loop, alongside three other prominent Google researchers: Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le. The startup will focus on building AI systems that automate the scientific method, designing, running, and analyzing experiments autonomously, to accelerate breakthroughs in fields like biology, chip design, materials science, and AI itself.

The departure represents a major talent loss for Google, as Dean and his cofounders helped build many of the company's most important AI technologies, including Google Brain and Gemini. Despite trying to retain the team, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai ultimately backed the venture, with Google becoming a founding investor and cloud partner. Venture capital firms, including Khosla Ventures and Radical Ventures, also invested, betting on the founders' track record and ambitious vision.

Discovery Loop plans to use its own AI-powered research system to improve its machine learning models before expanding into scientific discovery and engineering. The founders believe AI can eventually function as an autonomous researcher capable of generating new ideas and discoveries, potentially allowing small teams to compete with the world's largest research organizations and reshaping how innovation is done.

For the article: https://www.wired.com/story/jeff-dean-google-discovery-loop-startup/