Google's Gemini hits 1 billion users as AI unit undergoes major shake-up

According to TechCrunch, Pichai made the announcement on X, noting that Gemini was the 14th Google product to reach the 1 billion user mark. The figure refers specifically to the Gemini app and does not include AI features embedded across Google’s other products. Google also disclosed that 63% of Gemini users interact with the assistant by voice, and that the app generates more than 150 million images daily. The company said it has more than 100 million active users on iOS.

The milestone narrows the gap with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which crossed 1 billion monthly users earlier this summer. The Verge noted that OpenAI buried the news in a blog post on Aug. 6, even though external data suggested ChatGPT had passed the mark in June. Google had reported 750 million monthly Gemini users in February and 950 million in late July before reaching 1 billion last week. While ChatGPT remains the larger platform, Google’s app appears to be growing faster.

The user announcement follows a major shake-up of Google’s AI research division announced Aug. 6. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping down from day-to-day leadership to become chairman of DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet, according to CNBC. His successor is Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously the unit’s CTO and Google’s chief AI architect, who has been appointed senior vice president. Kavukcuoglu, a DeepMind veteran who joined in 2012, will report directly to Pichai and oversee Gemini model development, Frontier AI research and the Gemini app and developer teams.

CNBC reported that the leadership change is meant to close the performance gap with OpenAI and Anthropic at the frontier of AI. Analysts said Google has fallen behind in areas such as coding, where rivals have been 'miles ahead.' Ben Wood of CCS Insight told CNBC that Kavukcuoglu’s promotion 'feels like a move designed to adjust the focus of Google’s efforts away from academic projects and toward improving frontier performance and the developer toolset.' Ray Wang of Constellation Research said the appointment signals Google prioritizes execution over deep research.

On the same day, Jeff Dean, Google’s former chief scientist and a co-founder of Google Brain, announced he was leaving after 27 years to start a new AI company. MIT Technology Review reported that Dean is launching Discovery Loop with three former colleagues, including Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le, according to Chinese tech publication Leiphone. The startup aims to fully automate scientific research, and Google is one of its early investors. Discovery Loop’s goal, Leiphone reported, is to build an 'automated AI scientist' that could let small research teams outperform much larger institutions.

The departures and reorganization come amid financial strain in Google’s AI unit. MIT Technology Review noted that the company turned cash flow negative for the first time on record in its latest quarter. Google is also shifting its AI science strategy, moving away from specialized tools like AlphaFold and toward agentic AI systems that can conduct research autonomously. In May, Google unveiled its first major redesign of the search box in 25 years, turning it into a multimodal AI interface and merging AI Overviews with the AI Mode, according to VentureBeat. That redesign was described by Google’s head of Search Liz Reid as 'the biggest upgrade to our iconic search box since its debut over 25 years ago.'

Some observers see Dean’s exit as a warning sign. Jeremy Nixon, a former Google Brain researcher and founder of AI infrastructure company Infinity, told The New York Times that Dean’s departure jeopardizes Google’s future. Analysts told CNBC that Kavukcuoglu must first ship Gemini 3.5 Pro, which has reportedly been delayed, and then prove Google can maintain a predictable release cadence. Nick Patience of the Futurum Group said Kavukcuoglu also needs to rebuild the coding and pretraining expertise that has left the company.