Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — AI capable of performing any intellectual task at a human level — could become a reality within the next three to four years, according to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.
In a recent blog post, Hassabis described the current period as a pivotal moment for humanity and urged governments to act quickly to ensure increasingly capable AI systems are developed and used safely for the benefit of society.
He called for the creation of an international body to oversee the development of advanced AI, warning that intense competition among companies and countries is overshadowing important safety concerns.
Hassabis said future AI systems are expected to become more autonomous and may eventually improve themselves with minimal human intervention, making robust safeguards essential.
Despite his optimism, he acknowledged that predicting the capabilities of future AI models remains difficult. He noted that current AI systems excel at specific tasks but still lack the broad understanding and reasoning needed to match human intelligence across all domains.
Hassabis also said the biggest challenge in developing AGI is enabling AI systems to understand real-world context and effectively integrate planning and reasoning capabilities.
He added that once AGI is achieved, the next stage would be Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), though no one can accurately predict when that milestone will be reached.
