Google DeepMind's Nobel-winning CEO predicts AI will trigger a renaissance within 15 years

Google's Nobel-winning AI leader sees a 'renaissance' ahead -- after a 10 or 15-year shakeout | Fortune

Sir Demis Hassabis, the recently minted Nobel laureate and CEO of Google DeepMind, believes humanity is standing on the precipice of a "new golden era of discovery." But reaching this utopia will require navigating a turbulent transition period -- a decade-long sprint that Hassabis describes as a necessary disruption for the $3.9 trillion tech giant he helps lead. Speaking to Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on the Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, Hassabis offered a vision of the future defined by "radical abundance." It is a world where artificial intelligence has successfully bottled the scientific method to solve the planet's most intractable problems. "In 10, 15 years' time, we'll be in a kind of new golden era of discovery that [is] a kind of new renaissance," Hassabis predicted. In this near future, he predicted that "medicine won't look like it does today," with AI enabling personalized treatments and curing major diseases. Beyond health, he said he foresees AI unlocking new materials to solve the energy crisis through fusion or solar breakthroughs, eventually allowing humanity to "travel the stars and ... explore the galaxy". However, the path to the stars is paved with what Hassabis identifies as a "classic innovator's dilemma" here on Earth. For Google, the company that organized the world's information, the rise of generative AI represents an existential pivot point. To build the future, the company must risk disrupting its own core search business. "If we don't disrupt ourselves, someone else will," Hassabis said. "You're better off... doing it on your terms." This philosophy drove a massive internal reorganization in 2023, sparked by the rise of competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Google merged its two world-class research units, Google Brain and DeepMind, into a single entity under Hassabis' leadership. "Bringing the two groups together and trying to combine the best of both cultures has been great," Hassabis said, "and I think we're reaping the rewards of that now." He likened the combined entity to a "nuclear power plant that's plugged into the rest of this amazing company," providing the raw intelligence that powers everything from Search to YouTube. The consolidation was necessary to pool the "enormous compute power" required to train frontier models like Gemini. The strategy appears to be working; following the release of models such as Gemini 3 and the viral image generator "Nano Banana," Alphabet shares soared approximately 65% by the end of the year. Hassabis said he thinks the company has now "crossed the watershed moment" where AI models are capable enough to act as useful assistants in high-level research. The cornerstone of this new era, according to Hassabis, is the application of AI to biology. He pointed to AlphaFold, DeepMind's breakthrough model that solved the 50-year-old "protein folding problem," as the proof of concept. By predicting the 3D structure of over 200 million proteins, the system has provided a roadmap for the human body that is now used by over 3 million researchers. (This is the work that let to Hassabis being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024.) Hassabis is now applying AlphaFold at Isomorphic Labs, a Google spin-off dedicated to "solving" disease. By moving drug discovery from "wet labs" to in silico (computer) simulation, Hassabis said he believes the process can become "1,000 times more efficient". The company is already in pre-clinical trials for cancer drugs, with hopes to move to clinical trials by the end of the year. (Also in January, Shontell talked to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about his hopes of finding a cancer cure through smart use of AI.) This "renaissance" requires relentless effort, though. Hassabis admitted that he "doesn't sleep very much," working a "second day" from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. to focus on deep scientific thinking. "I come alive at about 1 a.m.," he confessed. For Hassabis, the grueling schedule and the corporate restructuring are the table stakes for the ultimate prize. The next decade may be a period of intense technological shakeout and adaptation, but he said he remains convinced of the destination. "We set out with the mission of... solving intelligence and then using it to solve everything else," Hassabis said. If his 15-year timeline holds true, "everything else" may soon include the stars themselves.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis Says AI Will Usher In 'New Golden Era Of Discovery' Within 15 Years, Transforming Medicine, Energy, Space - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said artificial intelligence could trigger a "new golden era of discovery" within the next decade, transforming medicine, energy and even space exploration. AI Set To Transform Medicine And Science On Wednesday, speaking on the Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, Hassabis said humanity is entering a period of "radical abundance" driven by AI. "In 10, 15 years' time, we'll be in a kind of new golden era of discovery that [is] a kind of new renaissance," he said. He highlighted AI's potential to revolutionize medicine, predicting personalized treatments and cures for major diseases. Google Restructures To Lead AI Revolution Hassabis acknowledged the challenges ahead, calling the coming decade a "classic innovator's dilemma" for Google. "If we don't disrupt ourselves, someone else will," he said. This philosophy guided the 2023 merger of Google Brain and DeepMind, creating a unified research powerhouse to train advanced AI models like Gemini and Nano Banana. Hassabis also pointed to DeepMind's AlphaFold, which solved the decades-old protein folding problem, as proof of AI's scientific capabilities. He is now applying the technology at Isomorphic Labs to accelerate drug discovery, aiming to make the process "1,000 times more efficient" and advance preclinical cancer trials. AI Jobs Impact And Startup Bubble Concerns Earlier, Hassabis said AI was beginning to affect hiring, particularly in internships and entry-level roles, though there was no evidence of widespread job losses. He noted companies were slowing junior hiring as AI automated routine tasks, but broader labor data did not show mass displacement. Hassabis urged students to master AI tools, arguing that hands-on technical skills could matter more than traditional internships in an AI-driven job market. He also warned that heavy investment in early-stage AI startups with little revenue suggested parts of the market could be in a bubble, while maintaining that AI remained overhyped in the short term but undervalued over the long term. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Photo For Everything via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.