Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has announced the formation of a new business unit, Google DeepMind, dedicated to advancing the development of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs and products. The unit is a merger between Google Research’s Brain team and DeepMind, a London-based AI firm acquired by Google in 2014.

The primary objective of the restructuring is to accelerate the company’s progress in AI research and development while maintaining a focus on safety and responsibility. By consolidating Google’s AI talent into a single, unified team, Pichai aims to “significantly accelerate our progress in AI.” Jeff Dean, Chief Scientist at Google Research and Google DeepMind, will be responsible for building a series of powerful, multimodal AI models and will report directly to Pichai.

In light of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s concerns about AI’s potential to destabilize civilization, Pichai emphasized the importance of responsible development in creating the AI-focused unit. He stated, “To ensure the bold and responsible development of general AI, we’re creating a unit that will help us build more capable systems more safely and responsibly.”

While it has been confirmed that the resulting AI advancements will be utilized to enhance Google products, the specifics of their implementation have yet to be disclosed.

A recent survey of 11,004 American citizens highlighted significant apprehensions about the potential impact of AI on the workforce. Of the respondents, 56% believed that AI would have a major impact on the U.S. economy, while only 13% felt that “AI will help more than hurt” American workers.”