• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 3, 2018

Google has made changes to its artificial intelligence team, which also shakes up search -- splitting its AI group into its own business unit and appointing new leads for both businesses.

With the move, the company’s AI lead John Giannandrea will step down. Giannandrea expanded his role into AI and search after joining Google in 2010. Under his leadership, AI and search merged.

The Information first reported the move on Monday. Other reports suggest that Giannandrea will remain with the company. The idea is to spend more time working with technology.

When Giannandrea inherited the role from Amit Singhal in early 2016, it signaled Google's emphasis on integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence into its most important product -- search. But Google CEO Sundar Pichai has increasingly emphasized AI's importance to the entire company. The move suggests that AI is now important enough to form its own business unit.

Making things even more interesting, Jeff Dean, who heads the Google Brain project, will take Giannandrea’s role to lead AI and Ben Gomes, the company’s current vice president of search engineering, will become the company’s new search chief.