If you think the AI revolution has been moving fast, you might want to buckle up. The timeline for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is now closer that we expected.
AGI is the AI that matches or exceeds human capability across all cognitive tasks.
Speaking at the Axios AI+ SF Summit this past Thursday, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicted that AGI could be a reality within just five to ten years.
Let that sink in. We aren’t talking about a better chatbot or a faster image generator. We are talking about a system that can think, plan, and reason as well as you or I can.
Hassabis calls it
…probably the most transformative moment in human history.
I know, CEOs predictions are often full of hot air. But Hassabis isn’t just a CEO; he is a scientist who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold. When he speaks about technical trajectories, he has the credibility to back it up.
The scary part? He admitted that getting there requires “one or two additional major breakthroughs.” We can’t just make current models bigger (scaling). We need something new.
The “World Model” Shift: Oluboba’s Analysis
Here is where I think things get fascinating. Hassabis mentioned that the next frontier is “world models”, systems that simulate physical reality.
Think of it this way:
- Current AI (LLMs): Like a student who has memorized every book in the library but has never stepped outside. They know the word “gravity,” but they don’t inherently understand that if they drop a glass, it breaks.
- World Models: An AI that understands the physics of the room, cause and effect, and spatial reasoning.
I believe this is the missing link. Once AI understands the physical world, not just the textual world, its ability to solve real-world problems (and potentially replace complex labor) skyrockets.
The Immediate Danger: Cyber Warfare
We can’t talk about AGI without talking about security. Hassabis dropped a sobering warning: catastrophic outcomes, specifically cyberattacks on energy and water systems, are “imminent” or “probably already occurring.”
This isn’t sci-fi. Just recently, Google’s “Big Sleep” AI agent discovered and helped patch a critical vulnerability in SQLite (a massive database engine) before humans even found it.
That’s a double-edged sword like the Bible calls it. AI can defend us, but it can also be weaponized to attack infrastructure faster than humans can react.
What This Means For Your Career
At the same summit, Nikesh Arora (CEO of Palo Alto Networks) said something that stuck with me: “Almost everyone… will find their jobs fundamentally altered in five years.”
My advice? Don’t panic, but don’t be complacent. If top tech leaders are saying the industry is expanding, it means the playing field is leveling.
The winners in this next decade won’t necessarily be the best coders or writers. They will be the people who know how to wield these super-intelligent systems to solve problems.
The clock is ticking on that 5-to-10-year window. The question is: will you be watching the transformation, or leading it?
By the way, here are some books and courses on artificial general intelligence for you.
