DeepMind CEO Hassabis says AGI achievable in 5–8 years, urges caution on risks

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he thinks artificial general intelligence, or AGI, will emerge in the next five or 10 years.

AGI broadly relates to AI that is as smart or smarter than humans.

Other tech leaders see AGI arriving even sooner… a chance we could see an example of AGI emerge as soon as this year.

The main challenge with achieving AGI is getting today's AI systems to a point of understanding context from the real world.

A private Indian university was booted from a top artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi after displaying a Chinese-made robotic dog as its own.

Internet users quickly identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, sold by China’s Unitree Robotics and used widely in research and education.

The incident was an embarrassment for host country India, officials said, as it tries to cast itself as a global hub for AI and advanced manufacturing.

The episode underscores the high stakes for India as it seeks billions in AI investments while stressing credibility and local innovation.

As head of Google DeepMind, he’s driving... what promises to be the most significant technological revolution of our lifetimes.

He paints a picture of medical advances... ‘radical abundance’... ‘incredible productivity and therefore prosperity for society.’

There’s also the worry that ‘radical abundance’ is another way of framing ‘mass unemployment’: AI is already replacing human jobs.

To some the prospect is apocalyptic, to others, like Hassabis, it’s utopian.

True artificial general intelligence is on the way, but it still has some ways to go, said Google DeepMind's CEO.

Hassabis' short answer: "I don't think we are there yet."

He listed three areas where current AGI systems are falling short: continual learning, long-term thinking, and consistency.

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said current AI chatbots already meet the definition of AGI, but Silicon Valley leaders keep "moving the goalposts."

AI is extending the reach of cutting-edge science and helping scientists globally tackle some of the greatest challenges facing their communities.

Five years ago, our AlphaFold AI system solved the 50-year grand challenge of protein structure prediction and brought AI-enabled scientific breakthroughs to the forefront.

AlphaFold is our first major proof point of AI’s power to advance science but it is only the beginning: we’re seeing early promising results from a wide range of open access research tools.

If the world is to truly benefit from the positive potential AI holds for science and society, more scientists need access to the right tools, technology, and partnerships.

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 has been extended by a day until Saturday, 21 February 2026, due to “overwhelming response”.

The India AI Summit is being held at the Bharat Mandapam across 10 arenas covering 70,000 square metres, with delegates from many countries.

“Expo will not be open to the public on 19 February 2026 due to VIP movement,” IT Secretary S. Krishnan said.

Due to security reasons, Thursday's sessions can only be attended by invitees and no public will be allowed at Bharat Mandapam on Thursday, 19 February.

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said current AI systems are still far from achieving true general intelligence.

He highlighted key limitations including lack of continual learning, weak long-term planning, and what he called “jagged intelligence.”

Today’s AI models are trained once and frozen, unlike humans who continuously learn from experience.

AI excels in complex tasks but fails in basic reasoning, illustrating the gap to general intelligence.

Rahul Gandhi slammed the AI Impact Summit, terming it a 'disorganised PR spectacle.' Indian data is 'up for sale' and 'Chinese products showcased'.

Congress said the Modi government has made a 'laughing stock of India globally' over the AI summit and that 'Chinese robots are being displayed as our own.'

'The Modi Government has caused irreparable damage to the image of the country - they have reduced AI to a joke,' the Congress post claimed.

Galgotias University was asked to vacate its stall after backlash that its 'Orion' robotic dog was actually a Chinese-made Unitree Go2.

We’re partnering with government bodies and local institutions across India to accelerate discoveries in science and education.

From training and mentorship for students to powering innovation hubs, we’re supporting India to apply AI where it can have the most impact.

We’re supporting India to apply AI where it can have the most impact.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology launched VoicERA, an open source, end to end Voice AI stack, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

Deployed on the BHASHINI National Language Infrastructure, VoicERA establishes a national execution layer for multilingual Voice and Language AI.

#VoicERA establishes a national execution layer for multilingual Voice and Language AI.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (@GoI_MeitY) launched VoicERA, an open source, end to end Voice AI stack.