Koray Kavukcuoglu is an artificial intelligence researcher and executive. He is known for his role as Google's AI architect, where he is responsible for the strategy and integration of the company's Gemini models.^[1]

Career

In June 2025, Kavukcuoglu was appointed to the newly created role of Senior Vice President, AI Architect at Google.^[2][3] The move, announced in an internal memo by CEO Sundar Pichai, places Kavukcuoglu in a position where he reports directly to Pichai and is responsible for the company's overarching AI strategy.^[2] His primary mandate is to guide the widespread implementation of the Gemini suite of AI models across Google's products. His responsibilities include shaping the technical and product strategy to accelerate the adoption of Gemini's capabilities across Google's portfolio of services and platforms.^[1] Pichai stated the goal of the role is to "accelerate how we bring our world-leading models into our products, with the goal of more seamless integration, faster iteration, and greater efficiency."^[2]

Prior to this appointment, Kavukcuoglu had a long tenure at Google DeepMind, which he first joined in 2014 as a Research Scientist. He progressed through several leadership roles within the organization, including Vice President of Research and later Vice President of Research & Technology. During his time at DeepMind, he also served as the chief technology officer before his promotion in June 2025.^[3][2]

Before his career at Google, Kavukcuoglu was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at New York University. His earlier industry experience includes a role as a Research Scientist at NEC Labs America, a Software and Control Engineer at Roketsan from September 2001 to September 2002, and an internship at Siemens in 2000.^[3]

Education

Kavukcuoglu earned a PhD in Computer Science from New York University, which he attended from 2005 to 2010. Prior to his doctoral studies, he received both a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from 2002 to 2005 and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from 1997 to 2001 from Boğaziçi University.^[4]