Best of Big Technology: Demis Hassabis On AGI, Deceptive AIs, Building a Virtual Cell

Big Technology Podcast

Alex Kantrowitz

Management, Religion, Politics, Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Investing, Marketing, News Commentary, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Business, Tech News, Philosophy, Government, Technology

4.7 • 596 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Demis Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind. He joined Big Technology Podcast in early 2025 discuss the cutting edge of AI and where the research is heading. In this conversation, we cover the path to artificial general intelligence, how long it will take to get there, how to build world models, whether AIs can be creative, and how AIs are trying to deceive researchers. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Google's plan for smart glasses and Hassabis's vision for a virtual cell. Hit play for a fascinating discussion with an AI pioneer that will both break news and leave you deeply informed about the state of AI and its promising future. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com --- Wealthfront.com/bigtech. If eligible for the overall boosted 3.90% rate offered with this promo, your boosted rate is subject to change if the 3.25% base rate decreases during the 3-month promo period. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC, not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 12/19/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable base APY. Instant withdrawals are subject to certain conditions and processing times may vary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:01.0	Thank you. love. Shop in the app, online, and in stores. Google DeepMind's CEO and Nobel laureate Demis Asabas joins us to talk about the path toward artificial general intelligence, Google's AI roadmap, and how AI research is driving scientific discovery.
1:13.3	That's coming up right after this. Welcome to Big Technology podcast, a show for cool-headed,
1:18.5	nuanced conversation of the tech world and beyond. Today, we're at Google DeepMind headquarters
1:23.4	in London for what promises to be a fascinating conversation with Google DeepMind CEO,
1:28.8	Demis Hasabas. Demis, great to see you again. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me on the show.
1:34.0	Definitely. It's great to be here. So every research house right now is working toward building
1:39.2	AI that mirrors human intelligence, human level intelligence, they call it AGI.
1:49.4	Where are we right now in the progression? And how long is it going to take to get there?
1:54.3	Well, look, I mean, of course, the last few years has been an incredible amount of progress.
1:56.9	Actually, you know, maybe over the last decade plus.
2:02.2	This is what's on everyone's lips right now. And the debate is how close are we to AGI? What's the correct definition of AGI? We've been working on this for more than 20 plus
2:07.3	years. We've sort of had a consistent view about AGI being a system that's capable of exhibiting
	...

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