Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, has projected that artificial general intelligence (AGI) — machines with human-level cognitive abilities — could arrive within five to ten years. Speaking in an interview with 60 Minutes, Hassabis described AI progress as “exponential” and said recent advancements have surpassed expectations.
Hassabis said that DeepMind’s work is pushing AI beyond problem-solving toward perception and imagination. He highlighted the company’s latest projects, including Astra, a multimodal AI capable of interpreting and narrating visual content, and Gemini, which is being trained for autonomous real-world tasks.
While optimistic about AI’s potential to accelerate drug discovery and reduce global scarcity, Hassabis stressed the urgent need for coordinated safety standards. “These systems need guardrails, values, and guidance — much like raising a child,” he said.
