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Demis Hassabis posted a farewell for John Jumper on X: https://x.com/demishassabis/status/2068002732250640603

> Thanks John for an extraordinary partnership and wonderful collaboration over the past 9 years! What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity.

I did not "know" John personally, but we attended the same undergraduate program, concurrently. My workstudy job was supporting engineering/hardware for his specific school/program.

Nothing but nice things were ever heard about him. In a school of egos, his was approachably humble [†]... reasoning and facts seemed to make him tick. My twin actually had classes with him (small school), but also didn't know him well... but knew he was a swell guy. None of his IT tickets were ever typical "rude rich Vandy kid" – he could solve/delegate most his own problems.

So glad to see Vanderbilt secure yet another humble Laureate (Muhammud Yunis won his Nobel while we all were attending, I believe the previous alumnus-so).

Keep it humble, fellow knowledge-seeker Human John. Howdy from KissamKissam.

[†] most Obviously Brilliant-types "come off" as I_went_to_Harvard arrogant; not John ("awe" of his obvious brilliance?)

Something spicy must have happened internally at Google. This rapid fire high level attrition isn't just down to the bureaucratic quagmire.
Here's my read. Take it for what you paid for it ... it comes from a couple of decades of experience in research labs and top companies.

Google appears to be falling behind in the AGI race. The leadership (MBAs) do what clueless leadership always does: they start cracking the whips, bring the knives out. People like Jumper, Shazeer, Dean, etc. are not built for fighting political battles; they're built for solving tough problems! What MBAs don't understand is that researchers at this level put a tremendous amount of pressure on themselves; and this internal pressure is far beyond what any external entity can apply. So, when MBAs start hassling top researchers with "so ... what have you done lately?" and "what are you working on? Is it important?" and "when are we getting AGI (with a smirk)" type of questions, then it feels really really grating: If I knew a sure path to the goal, I would work 24x7 to get there, dammit!

Is it possible they are just falling behind ?

Their newest model wasn’t really SOTA. And honestly fable 5 was the most human like model I’d ever tried. It was an incredible jump.

And recently lots of Claude users at r/ClaudeAI are noticing Opus 4.8 has really increased in capability. Not new things but maybe redirected compute. It just feels like one of the best models ever, maybe because the compute that was previously assigned to Fable has been redirected? It feels incredible.

The economics of working at a pre-IPO company that will likely have a successful IPO and a 20+ year post-IPO company are also very different.
I felt Hassabis' heart was never in consumer applications or even LLMs. He'd much rather be doing scientific research.
Why invent conspiracy theories? Occam's razor: They are leaving for companies that have filed for upcoming IPOs, so it could just as well be compensation.
Maybe Google doesn't want to pay out billions to a handful of engineers?
Maybe because they know where things are going with Gemini (more ads to your face) while Anthropic might, for once, have a different story.

When personal finance is not the bottleneck anymore, the new criteria becomes "vision" and "stacked talent".

Vesting schedule?
Too many mid-management from Amazon joined plus GRAD bullshit. But it's good for stock price, so I am buying more Google
I think its google doing what theve always done, make a great *thing then ignore it. The models are great their agentic harness systems are really poor though, compared to codex cli and claude code cli its a mess.
Between this and Shazeer you guys are idolizing individuals in an unhealthy way IMO.

Why are we keeping tabs on researchers moving around?

You're talking about them like people talk about the NFL trading players or (football) soccer teams making recordbreaking player transfers.

someone further down wrote

> Anthropic legit builds one the strongest if not the strongest IC team in the history of computational technology.

What a weird thing to say. It's not a team sport where you support 'sides'.

>What a weird thing to say. It's not a team sport where you support 'sides'.

It is if you have equity!

this is a natural human trait. soap operas, sports, businesses, music.

there are also real implications. assuming money is not the only factor in moving to anthropic, it does help guide insight into where innovation might be and where to put your AI spend. a decision which could result in real returns for individuals and companies.

The team with the most star power and hype tends to attract the best young talent.

If the next big breakthrough in AI comes from Anthropic, good chance it comes from some genius you’ve never heard of who decided to work there because of [famous researcher].

Why not, really? People have different (though likely conflicting) views on the company and it’s an interesting (and potentially profitable) space to follow.

I‘d argue it’s more meaningful than sports, which makes it more interesting to follow.

Of course the sports aspects are silly, but maybe they‘re just a fun way to keep track. Happens to other popular companies in the tech sector as well.

It is like NFL trading players, what's wrong with that? Not that either should be idolized, but they're paid a lot for a reason.
KRAZAM made a skit about this. You would like it.
It’s annoying that the headline gives no context of who Jumper is, as if everyone is expected to know.
why is it unhealthy?
Gemini fumbled not on the models but on the basics.

Gemini 3.1 flash was actually an amazing model to code with and their 20 dollar AI plans had solid value, but they locked it all behind 429s, needless gatekeeping of clients and poor product differentiation even among internal offerings. Users moved on. To claude for the best product, to OpenAI for the non gatekept API access. It’s hard to bring them back.

Something seems afoot at Google. The real tell will be if Demis makes a move. Jeff Dean seems more like a lifer to me.
He will be back at Google after the Anthropic IPO.

Seems like everyone here is easily fooled by the Anthropic hype. After the IPO, Anthropic won't be like the daycare it is today.

Their main competitors are the chinese labs which are racing all their prices down close to $0.

John Jumper Jumps to Anthropic, was right there.
I am guessing this is related to Anthropic’s recent acquisition of Coefficient Bio, and their interest on essentially using AGI to discover novel drugs
Name checks out.
Super Mario leaves Nintendo to focus on plumbing.
Two big names left GDM recently. Could be a coincidence, but where's the fun in that? :p
Nominative determinism.
Shazeer yesterday and Jumper today....Demis is there something we need to know about?
Who cares?
I would just join a lab for 4 years and retire at this point.
Well, tons of top people left Google when Facebook was up and coming. Its nothing new. Google can't really do much for people who've made up their mind.

But yeah conspiracy theoretical approach would generate lot of discussion on this rather normal thing happening.

Anthropic legit builds one the strongest if not the strongest IC team in the history of computational technology. They are insanely stacked on talent, and either we will witness a legendary run, or a new LTCM
LinkedIn is right there for “career updates”.

Nobody really knows or cares about Mr Jumper there. Congrats on his new role in converting humanity’s achievements into slop.

Who?
John Jumper what a great name sounds like a video game action hero.
Anthropic is probably approaching AGI, and everyone wants to be there for it
The guy who invented jumping is joining a major AI lab?!?