The group, led by Nobel Prize-winner Sir Demis Hassabis, has introduced a tougher vetting process and more bureaucracy that made it harder to publish studies about its work on AI, according to seven current and former research scientists at Google DeepMind.

Three former researchers said the group was most reluctant to share papers that reveal innovations that could be exploited by competitors, or cast Google’s own Gemini AI model in a negative light compared with others.

While the company had a publication review process in place before DeepMind’s merger with Brain, the system has become more bureaucratic, according to those with knowledge of the changes.