Hassabis Steps Down from DeepMind as AI Firms Aim for Human-Level Breakthroughs

The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is shifting its focus towards more complex and valuable applications beyond chatbots. Two recent announcements highlight this trend: Demis Hassabis stepping down from day-to-day control of Google DeepMind to pursue Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), global strategy, and the use of AI for disease cures.

Hassabis will spend more time thinking about AGI, scientific breakthroughs, and the long-term consequences of creating systems that may exceed human capabilities. He has repeatedly argued that improving health should be AI's most important application. His work on AlphaFold helped demonstrate that machine learning can solve scientific problems rather than merely imitating language or generating pictures.

Meanwhile, Naomi Bashkansky, a former OpenAI researcher, has joined Conduit, a startup attempting to decode thoughts using non-invasive neural sensors. The company's founders call this project 'telepathy.' Bashkansky imagines workers wearing neural headbands that continuously transmit intentions to AI coding agents by 2027, and believes AI may feel less like an external tool and more like an additional sense or limb by 2035.