Hassabis Tapped for Singular AI Role, Focuses on Developing AGI
Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of Google's DeepMind AI research lab, has been appointed as the chief scientist at Alphabet, Google's parent company. He replaces Jeff Dean, who is leaving to work at a startup.
Hassabis will focus on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI), which he believes is close to becoming a viable technology within three years. AGI refers to a machine that can understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.
In his new role, Hassabis will still lead research at Isomorphic Labs, a Google spin-off focused on drug discovery. He will also serve as the chair of DeepMind, although Koray Kavukcuoglu will take over as its CEO and report directly to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
Hassabis has been a prominent advocate for AGI development and has called for greater self-regulation in the market to drive the technology forward. He believes that humanity is at a pivotal moment in history, and it's crucial to get the next steps right to ensure the successful development of AGI.