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Longtime Search SVP Amit Singhal leaving Google after 15 years, head of AI taking over

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Google’s longtime Senior Vice President of Search Amit Singhal is leaving the company after 15 years. In a Google+ post, he said that February 26th would be the last day and that he would be looking into philanthropy in the future. Re/Code is reporting that the Search will be merged with the company’s other artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts.

Singhal is responsible for the all important ranking algorithm behind Search. As described in Steven Levy’s In The Plex, Singhal rewrote the entire search engine in 2001 and was named a Google Fellow. In his post, he recounts how far search has advanced in the past 15 years and that the “Star Trek” computer, that has served as Google’s guide on computing, is becoming a reality.

He goes on to say that “search is stronger than ever” and that a capable team has already been running the day-to-day operations of the Search team. Singhal’s successor will be John Giannandrea, head of machine learning and artificial intelligence. This is part of a broader effort to merge Search and AI research.

Most recently, Time magazine ran a profile on the Search team and Singhal revealed a lapel pin prototype of a Star Trek-like communicator that performed searches when tapped. The departure with Google seems to be on good terms and that Singhal is very much interested in working on philanthropic projects that give back to those who are less fortunate in the future. February 26 will be his last day at Google.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com