ET@Davos 2026: AGI should lead to fresh understanding of how the world works, says Google DeepMind CEO

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) should generate new theories and lead to fresh understanding of how the world works, Demis Hassabis, chief executive and cofounder of Google DeepMind, told Sruthijith KK in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"I think that if we do that, we'll accelerate science and human health. We'll have incredible medical solutions and I think we'll be in a world of radical abundance," said the British computer scientist and Nobel laureate, who described DeepMind as the engine room of Google.

He said the Chinese have made up much ground in the artificial intelligence race, driven by skilled teams and funding.


"A few years ago, I would have said they were one or two years behind. Maybe now they're only six to 12 months behind," he said. "But what I think they're yet to demonstrate is innovating beyond the frontier. So the next transformers, the next AlphaGo, you know... I think so far all of that's come from the West and the US companies."