Google DeepMind CEO Predicts AI-Powered Humanity Will 'Colonise The Galaxy' Starting 2030

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has claimed that humans will be able to 'colonise the galaxy', starting 2030, with artificial intelligence (AI) being the driving force behind this revolution. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner said AI tools will turbocharge human productivity and lead us to far and away lands in the universe.

Mr Hassabis said the 'golden era' was only five years away, with AI models set to bring about a renaissance in human existence.

"If everything goes well, then we should be in an era of radical abundance, a kind of golden era. AGI can solve what I call root-node problems in the world, curing terrible diseases, much healthier and longer lifespans, finding new energy sources," said Mr Hassabis in an interview with WIRED, referring to human-level AI, popularly known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

"If that all happens, then it should be an era of maximum human flourishing, where we travel to the stars and colonise the galaxy. I think that will begin to happen in 2030," he added.

Quizzed if the abundance will still lead to unequal distribution as is the condition today, Mr Hassabis said AI will make "things feel like a non-zero-sum game". 

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AGI's future

While AGI may help humanity unlock new frontiers, Mr Hassabis has previously talked about society not being ready for it and that the technology and its perils keep him up at night. 

"It's a sort of like probability distribution. But it's [AGI]  coming, either way it's coming very soon and I'm not sure society's quite ready for that yet. And we need to think that through and also think about these issues that I talked about earlier, to do with the controllability of these systems and also the access to these systems and ensuring that all goes well," said Mr Hassabis.

He has also called for the establishment of a UN-like umbrella organisation to oversee AGI's development. 

"I would advocate for a kind of CERN for AGI, and by that, I mean a kind of international research-focused high-end collaboration on the frontiers of AGI development to try and make that as safe as possible," he added.