Josh Woodward, who is in charge of Google Labs and now the Gemini app, has the tough job of making one of Google’s most important AI products bigger while keeping users safe in a world full of fake news made by AI. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis’s decision to promote him shows how hard the company is working to improve Gemini in the face of strong competition from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
In early 2025, Woodward took over as head of the Gemini app from Sissie Hsiao while still working at Google Labs. This was done to speed up the development of the product. With his help, Gemini’s monthly active users jumped from 350 million in March to over a billion in August, thanks to new features like the Nano Banana image generator, which combined user images into custom figurines but put a lot of stress on Google’s infrastructure. Users on X liked features like “Papercuts” fixes, which let them switch models in the middle of a conversation.
Woodward has to deal with fast changes in AI, like the ability to make videos after OpenAI’s Sora launch. He has to focus on improving human creativity without hurting the next generation. Gemini has been criticized and called “high risk” for kids and teens because it doesn’t always filter out inappropriate content and doesn’t have strong protections for sensitive topics. Google fights back with red-teaming, expert consultations, and constant improvements to stop bad outputs, especially for people under 18.
Gemini 3.0 has been called Google’s most secure model yet after a lot of testing. Woodward’s dual role puts the tech giant in a good position to stay ahead in AI. Engineers like Usama Bin Shafqat say that his ability to deal with “boring issues” helped users pay more attention.
