After 27 years at Google, Jeff Dean, one of the company’s most influential AI leaders who oversaw and co-led the development of Gemini, has moved on to a new chapter. But his final 48 hours at the tech giant were far from a routine farewell. Dean's last two days at Google included an emotional goodbye with colleagues, a farewell attended by around 1,500 employees, hundreds of messages, a yoga session and even a late-night soccer game. By the time he officially left, Dean had spent hours responding to colleagues who wanted to say goodbye.
Jeff Dean’s 27-year Google journey comes to an end
Dean joined Google in 1999 as its 30th employee and went on to become one of the most important figures in the company's engineering and artificial intelligence efforts.
During his 27 years at Google, Dean helped shape several major technology initiatives. He also oversaw and co-led the development of Gemini, Google's family of generative AI models, making him a key figure in the company's competition in the AI race. After nearly three decades, Dean decided to leave Google and launch Discovery Loop, an AI startup focused on using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.
Jeff Dean began his final day with an emotional goodbye
At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dean announced his departure to 139 close colleagues during a video call. The conversation quickly became emotional, with Dean describing “explosions of heart and sad face emojis.”
At 9 a.m., he formally announced Discovery Loop and sent his farewell message internally. A few hours later, his farewell gathering drew a surprisingly large crowd.
"For my Google colleagues who might have sent me internal chat messages after I closed my laptop for a final time on Thursday afternoon, I apologize for my lack of response!" Dean wrote on X.
Around 1,500 Google employees showed up
The event was originally planned for about 300 people. Instead, around 1,500 Google employees turned up to say goodbye to Dean.
The gathering reflected the enormous professional network he had built during his 27 years at Google, particularly among the engineers and researchers who worked alongside him.
But Dean's farewell day wasn't finished yet.
Yoga, soccer and 400 goodbye messages
At 7 p.m., Dean attended yoga. At 8:30 p.m., he played in his soccer league. Then, at around 10:30 p.m., he checked his Google account and found approximately 400 messages from colleagues.
Dean called the messages “incredibly touching.” Because his internal Google account was about to be deactivated, he spent hours responding to the messages. He continued until roughly 2:30 a.m. Hundreds more messages arrived on his final morning
Dean woke at 6:30 a.m. Thursday and found around 250 additional messages on Google's internal chat system.
Another 500 messages had been sent to his personal email. Dean noted: “At least those won't disappear in 8 hours.”
By 5:20 p.m., he had responded to almost all of the internal messages. But there was still a problem. As Dean put it: “but they keep coming in.” Eventually, he closed his laptop.
Jeff Dean was ‘Unemployed’ for only one minute
The final twist came at midnight.
At 11:59:59 p.m., Dean officially became “Unemployed.” One minute later, he became the cofounder of Discovery Loop.
His next venture will focus on AI-powered scientific experimentation, marking a new chapter for the computer scientist after 27 years at Google.
For someone who helped shape Google's AI ambitions and co-led the development of Gemini, Dean's departure was significant.
But his final 48 hours showed that behind the AI breakthroughs and decades of technological achievements was something much simpler: hundreds of colleagues who wanted to say goodbye.
