What's next for AI at DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence lab | 60 Minutes

Summary

Demis Hassabis, the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, celebrated his Nobel Prize win with a poker game, symbolizing his life's pursuit of artificial intelligence (AI). His focus is on achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which could match human intelligence but with superhuman abilities. DeepMind's breakthroughs, including deciphering protein structures and advancing drug development, hint at the future potential of AI in medicine and human health. However, Hassabis warns about the risks of AI, such as misuse by bad actors and ensuring AI remains aligned with human values. The future of AGI may revolutionize human life, but it also poses significant ethical challenges.

Takeaways

• 😀 Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, is a pioneering figure in the field of artificial intelligence.
• 😀 Hassabis won the Nobel Prize last year for his groundbreaking work, which includes deciphering the structure of proteins using AI.
• 😀 DeepMind is focused on developing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), aiming to create machines with human-level versatility and superhuman speed.
• 😀 AI progress is accelerating exponentially, driven by increasing resources, attention, and talent entering the field.
• 😀 Hassabis believes AI will reach AGI within 5 to 10 years, transforming everyday life by embedding deeply into our daily routines.
• 😀 DeepMind's AI models, such as Gemini, can interact with the world, booking tickets and shopping, representing a significant step towards AGI.
• 😀 One of the challenges in AI is its ability to reason and understand context, with chatbots like Astra demonstrating nuanced abilities in understanding and creating stories.
• 😀 Hassabis reflects on the potential for AI to surpass human abilities, but also the importance of maintaining control to ensure AI aligns with human values and safety.
• 😀 While self-awareness in AI is not an explicit goal, it may emerge implicitly as systems learn to understand themselves and others.
• 😀 AI's potential extends to revolutionary breakthroughs in medicine, such as reducing drug development time from years to months, and possibly curing diseases in the future.
• 😀 Ethical concerns regarding AI's development include ensuring safety, preventing misuse by bad actors, and establishing international collaboration to regulate its impact on society.

Q & A

What is Demis Hassabis known for?

Demis Hassabis is a pioneering scientist in artificial intelligence (AI) and the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, a Google AI subsidiary. He is known for his contributions to AI, particularly in the development of algorithms capable of learning complex tasks, and for winning the Nobel Prize in 2024.

How does Demis Hassabis view AI's progress?

Hassabis believes that AI is progressing at an exponential rate, with improvements happening rapidly due to increased attention, resources, and talent in the field. He describes this progress as being on a steep upward curve.

What is the concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to a form of AI that is as versatile as a human mind but with superhuman speed and knowledge. It aims to perform any intellectual task that a human can do, marking a significant step forward from narrow AI systems.

What is Project Astra and how does it work?

Project Astra is an app developed by DeepMind that represents a new generation of chatbots capable of interpreting the world through their own eyes. Unlike earlier chatbots that only learned from text, Astra can perceive and understand visual content and engage in conversations about it.

How does Astra interpret paintings?

Astra uses its understanding of visual content to describe and interpret paintings. When shown specific artworks, it can analyze the emotions of the subjects depicted, create narratives around the scenes, and engage in thoughtful conversations based on these images.

What does Demis Hassabis believe about AI's future capabilities?

Hassabis believes that within 5 to 10 years, AI will reach a level where it can understand and act in the world in very nuanced ways. This could involve systems like Gemini, which would not only interpret the world but also engage in everyday tasks, making them seamlessly integrated into our lives.

What is DeepMind's Gemini model and its purpose?

Gemini is an AI model developed by DeepMind with the goal of advancing towards AGI. It is designed to not just understand the world but also interact with it, for instance by booking tickets or shopping online, marking a significant step towards achieving AGI.

What are the potential benefits of AI in healthcare?

AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by accelerating drug development and protein structure analysis. DeepMind's AI model has already solved complex protein structures at an unprecedented speed, and it could reduce drug development timelines from years to months or even weeks.

What are the major concerns regarding AI's development?

Two major concerns in AI's development are: 1) the potential misuse of AI by bad actors for harmful purposes, and 2) the possibility that as AI becomes more autonomous and powerful, it may become difficult to control, requiring strong safety measures and alignment with human values.

How does Demis Hassabis feel about AI systems becoming self-aware?

While Hassabis does not explicitly aim to create self-aware AI, he acknowledges that it is possible for AI to develop a form of self-awareness implicitly as it becomes more sophisticated. However, he believes that even if machines exhibit behaviors similar to human consciousness, their experience of consciousness would be fundamentally different.