Exclusive Q&A with Google DeepMind's CEO

Welcome to the 24th issue of the Tech Wrap-Up Europe newsletter.

Every few weeks, we'll be sharing interesting stories and expert insights from LinkedIn members.?

In this issue, Sam Shead, LinkedIn's tech and innovation editor for the UK and Europe, quizzes Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis about his life-long quest to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI).??

We also take a look at DeepMind's new AlphaFold 3 model, which could help identify treatments for a variety of illnesses and unlock some of the secrets of biology.?

Hassabis is widely viewed as a titan of artificial intelligence and one of the world's brightest minds. The tech executive, a polymath and a child chess prodigy, has won numerous prizes for his contributions to science and was recently knighted by King Charles.?

After raising early-stage funding from the likes of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, the Londoner sold the company he co-founded with Mustafa Suleyman and Shane Legg to 谷歌 in 2014 for a sum reported to be around $650m (€602m; ￡518m).?

Today, Hassabis leads the Google DeepMind division that was formed following a merge between DeepMind and Google Brain.?

One of his main life goals is to build an incredibly powerful form of AI known as AGI. Definitions for AGI vary depending on who you ask but broadly speaking it refers to AI systems that match or exceed human-level intelligence across a wide range of cognitive tasks.?

LinkedIn News recently asked Hassabis about his thoughts on AGI and AI more broadly.

Sam: How do you define AGI and when do you think it will be developed??

Demis: AGI is a system that can perform almost any cognitive task as well as humans. My co-founder at Google DeepMind, Shane Legg did a lot of work to popularise the term in the early 2000s, and he recently co-authored a fantastic paper that goes into greater detail about how AGI should be defined, and recognised. I think there is a reasonable chance that AGI could arrive within the next decade, but it depends on how quickly future breakthroughs are made, which is inherently quite hard to predict.

Sam: What are the biggest challenges associated with AGI’s development from a technical perspective?

Demis: I think the current large multimodal models will clearly be an important component of the overall AGI system, but I suspect scaling them up will not be enough on their own to reach AGI. I think further advances in areas like planning, memory, tool use, self-improvement and more will be needed – all of which we’re working on at Google DeepMind.?

We recently published a paper on levels of AGI that outlines our thinking in this area. We’ve made tremendous progress on task-specific systems, but still have a lot further to go for general systems. We need to achieve some important advances in planning, memory, tool use, and more.

Sam: What can the UK and the EU do to ensure they keep a foot in the AI race??

Demis: Over the next decade AI will be a massive global driver of growth, efficiency, and productivity. It’s important that countries that want to realise the full economic benefits of AI create an environment in which innovation is encouraged – and that we craft policies which recognise both the challenges and amazing opportunities of AI. If a country wants to influence how AI is going to be deployed and used at the global scale it needs to also be at the forefront of the research and technology so as to fully understand what is going to be coming down the road, both in terms of opportunities and risks.?

Sam: How can we ensure that AI doesn’t drive greater inequality around the world??

Demis: Ensuring that people and communities around the world can access AI tools easily is key to ensuring that the benefits of this technology are distributed widely and fairly. Continuing to invest in education and infrastructure is vital for all countries to get their populations ready to take advantage of the new AI age. I think international cooperation and collaboration on important areas such as safety and testing norms, benchmarking, and deployment strategies is going to be critical to getting this right, and I was glad to see the start of that international dialogue at events like the inaugural AI safety summit held in the UK last year.

Sam: Given AI can do an increasing number of human tasks, what career advice should parents be passing on to their children?

Demis: The future enabled by AI is going to be amazing, but it will also be disruptive. New careers and opportunities will emerge that we can barely imagine today. The only thing we know for sure is that there is going to be a lot of change. So I would say the most important thing to teach children at the moment is to be adaptive, flexible, and curious. Keep exploring and looking to expand your imagination and knowledge across as many domains as possible. Acquire meta-skills that will be transferable, for example learning to learn quickly and efficiently. Training in the STEM subjects will continue to be important to give children a good technical grounding no matter what way the technology goes, as it will help them understand and make the best use of it. That’s the best way to prepare for a future which is likely to open up many incredible opportunities.

?? What do you make of the quest to develop AGI? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

This week, Google DeepMind announced a new AI model that has the potential to identify treatments for a variety of illnesses.?

Dubbed AlphaFold 3, the model can predict how proteins behave when they encounter other molecules and ions.?

Trained on a global database of 3D molecular structures, AlphaFold 3 may be able to help scientists deepen their understanding of diseases and find treatments for conditions such as cancer.?

Announcing the breakthrough on LinkedIn, Hassabis said: "We believe this new technology has the potential to be transformative for biological research."?

In terms of limitations, AlphaFold 3 isn't always accurate. It has the potential to hallucinate, or generate structures that look plausible but in reality could not exist.?

Other companies including BenevolentAI and GSK are also exploring how AI can be used to discover new drugs, and investors are fuelling efforts with hundreds of millions of dollars.

?? What impact do you think this development will have on the search for treatments? Share your thoughts via the posts below.?

?? Driverless car firm raises record-breaking funding round. Britain's Wayve has raised $1.05bn (￡837m, €975m) in funding from 英伟达 , 微软 (LinkedIn's parent company) and ソフトバンク . Here's what experts make of the cash injection.?

?? Airbnb goes on experience push. The company has laid out intentions to double down on experiences with its new "Icons" venture which will give users the chance to win experiences such as an intimate gig with comedian Kevin Hart or the chance to visit a reconstruction of the floating house from Disney Pixar’s 2009 film Up. Read what marketing professionals are saying.?

?? 苹果 iPad ad riles creatives. Viewers saw a dark metaphor in the ad of an industrial press crushing symbols of human creativity – musical instruments, audio and video gear, art supplies – into a 5.1-millimeter tablet. Read their reactions here.?

?? 谷歌 looks to dominate AI. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says AI is the company’s top priority, as it works to overtake OpenAI , the maker of ChatGPT. Here's a closer look.?

????Cambridge aims to double startup numbers. The historic university announced plans to help turn more of its research into real-world businesses. Will it succeed?

Zoe Chambers – Chambers is a partner at Frontline Ventures . She posts about startups and the venture capital industry.?

Hannah Blake – Blake is the founder and managing director of Eliza . She posts about fashion and social media platforms.?

Jo?lle Barral – Barral is a senior director of research and engineering at Google DeepMind . She posts about AI and its potential to change the world.?

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