Less than a month before the 2024 edition of the Google I/O developer conference takes place on May 14, the company is making some big changes to its organization. This includes merging its hardware and Android teams into a new division.

in a blog postGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the new division will be called Platforms and Devices. The Google Pixel hardware teams, along with the Android, Chrome, Photos and Google One teams, will be under one umbrella. Also, research teams of Google who worked on “computational photography and device intelligence” will now be part of the new platforms and devices team.

Rick Austerlow, who was previously head of Google’s devices and services team, will now head the new platforms and devices division. At first glance, this organizational change is similar to what Microsoft has now, with one person leading the Windows and Surface teams.

The blog post also noted that Hiroshi Lockheimer, the longtime leader of the Android and Chrome teams, will “advise on the transition even as he begins work on several new projects across Alphabet.”

Google is also making some changes in an attempt to boost its AI efforts. The blog post noted that the teams at Google Research working on new AI models will now merge with similar teams at the Google DeepMind division. The blog says:

All of this work will now sit within Google DeepMind and expand our ability to deliver capable AI for our users, partners and customers. This will simplify development by centralizing the building of compute-intensive models in one place and establishing single access points for PAs looking to take those models and build AI applications.

Google will also transfer the responsible AI teams at Google Research to Google DeepMindm, and the rest of its accountability teams will be transferred to Google’s trust and safety division. It will be interesting to see how these organizational changes play out in the coming months and years.