DeepMind Veteran Ali Eslami Departs After 12 Years to Join Jeff Dean's DiscoLoopAI
On November 3, Ali Eslami (known online as arkitus), a researcher who had spent nearly 12 years at Google DeepMind, announced his departure and said he will join DiscoLoopAI, a new startup founded by Jeff Dean, next week, where he will work alongside Oriol Vinyals, Sanjay Ghemawat, and others.
Confirmed
- Ali Eslami worked at Google DeepMind for nearly 12 years and has now officially announced his departure.
- Looking back, he said his original goal in joining was to understand intelligence and build AGI, adding that "we now know how to build AGI, even if we don't fully understand it."
- He will join DiscoLoopAI next week. The company was founded by Jeff Dean, with co-founders including Oriol Vinyals and Sanjay Ghemawat.
Why it matters
- Eslami is a senior DeepMind researcher, and his claim that "we know how to build AGI" has sparked wide discussion about the source of his confidence.
- With Jeff Dean and several other top Google figures turning to startups, plus another DeepMind veteran coming aboard, DiscoLoopAI has become one of the most closely watched new AI companies; Eslami's addition further underscores how aggressively the company is drawing talent from DeepMind.
2026-11-03 ~ 2026-11-03 · 6 related posts
Primary sources
- [source] Ali Eslami leaves Google DeepMind after 12 years to join Jeff Dean's DiscoLoopAI — arkitus · 2026-11-03
- DeepMind Veteran of 12 Years Leaves to Join Jeff Dean's DiscoLoop AI — jongranskog · 2026-11-03
4 near-duplicate retellings: ammaar · xennygrimmato_ · mmbronstein · sahandsharif