Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis believes we're on the cusp of a new era in artificial intelligence, with human-level AI systems potentially arriving by 2030.
In a wide-ranging interview with CBS's 60 Minutes aired in April 2025, Hassabis, who recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold, outlined his vision for artificial general intelligence (AGI) – systems with human-like versatility but superhuman speed and knowledge.
"We'll have a system that really understands everything around you in very nuanced and deep ways – and are kind of embedded in your everyday life," Hassabis told correspondent Scott Pelley. The interview showcased Project Astra, an AI companion that can see, hear, and chat about anything, demonstrating advanced visual recognition and reasoning capabilities.
Hassabis's timeline aligns with a recent 145-page paper from Google DeepMind on AGI safety, which suggests such systems could arrive within years rather than decades. While optimistic about AGI's potential to help "cure all disease," Hassabis also expressed concerns about misuse and the growing autonomy of systems beyond human control.
Meanwhile, Stanford University's 2025 AI Index Report reveals significant shifts in the global AI landscape. While U.S. institutions produced 40 notable AI models in 2024 (compared to China's 15), Chinese models have rapidly closed the performance gap. On major benchmarks like MMLU and HumanEval, the difference between top U.S. and Chinese models narrowed from double digits in 2023 to near parity in 2024.
The report also highlights dramatic improvements in AI efficiency, with the cost of querying high-end AI models dropping from $20 per million tokens to just $0.07 in 18 months – a 280-fold reduction. However, AI-related incidents rose by 56.4% in 2024, raising concerns about safety and responsible development.
As AI becomes more embedded in daily life, with FDA-approved AI medical devices increasing from just 6 in 2015 to 950 by mid-2024, the race between innovation and regulation continues. Business adoption of AI jumped to 78% in 2024, up from 55% the previous year, while public sentiment remains mixed – with 83% of Chinese respondents seeing more benefits than drawbacks from AI, compared to just 39% in the United States.