‘AI matching human abilities could arrive in'…says Google DeepMind CEO

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Artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day, but are we anywhere close to building machines as intelligent as humans? According to Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the answer is not yet—but we’re getting there, a report by CNBC reveals.

Hassabis shared his thoughts on the future of AI and the long-debated concept of artificial general intelligence (AGI). That’s the kind of AI that can think, learn, and perform any task as well as (or better than) a human. And while it’s not here yet, he believes it’s just a matter of time.

“I think today’s systems, they’re very passive,” he explained. “There’s still a lot of things they can’t do. But I think over the next five to 10 years, a lot of those capabilities will start coming to the fore and we’ll start moving towards what we call artificial general intelligence.”

In simple terms, AGI is an AI that doesn’t just excel at specific tasks like writing essays or playing chess but can do anything a human can do—problem-solving, reasoning, creativity, even adapting to new environments. Hassabis admits we’re not quite there yet. “These systems are very impressive at certain things. But there are other things they can’t do yet, and we’ve still got quite a lot of research work to go before that.”

Not everyone agrees on the timeline, though. Some experts, including Robin Li, the CEO of Chinese tech giant Baidu, believe AGI is still more than a decade away. Last year, he dismissed the idea that we’re on the verge of this breakthrough, arguing that some predictions are just too optimistic.

So, where does that leave us? The truth is, AI is advancing at a humungous pace, but AGI remains a challenging goal. While today’s AI can assist with complex tasks, automate work, and even mimic creativity, but human level work is still in progress. The next decade, however, could bring us closer than ever before.