By Hari Haran
DeepMind, the London-based artificial intelligence (AI) research lab, is making bold strides to achieve the ultimate goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Founded by Demis Hassabis, the company’s CEO, DeepMind has set a goal of reaching AGI within the next 10 years. This would be a monumental achievement, and many experts in the field are watching closely to see if the ambitious goal will be met. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the plan that Demis Hassabis has put in place at DeepMind to make AGI a reality within the next decade.
Background on DeepMind and its CEO Demis Hassabis
DeepMind is an artificial intelligence research lab founded in London in 2010 by Demis Hassabis, Mustafa Suleyman, and Shane Legg. In 2015, DeepMind was acquired by Google and has since been at the forefront of cutting-edge AI research.
The lab is known for its work on deep reinforcement learning, a technique that enables machines to learn through trial and error.
Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind, is a renowned AI researcher and computer game designer. Before founding DeepMind, Hassabis was the co-founder of the video game company Elixir Studios and later went on to pursue a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at University College London.
Under Hassabis’ leadership, DeepMind has made significant progress in developing AI systems that can perform a wide range of tasks, from beating world champions at board games to predicting protein folding. Despite these successes, Hassabis and his team are now aiming for an even more ambitious goal:
achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), which would enable machines to learn and reason across a broad range of domains and tasks, much like humans do.
The Goal of Achieving AGI within 10 Years
AGI refers to an AI system that can understand or learn any intellectual task that a human can perform. Currently, most AI systems are designed for specific tasks and cannot easily transfer their knowledge to other tasks.
The pursuit of AGI is not new, but it has been a longstanding challenge for AI researchers. Hassabis believes that with the advancements in AI, especially in deep learning, it is now possible to achieve AGI.
He also recognizes the risks and challenges involved in this pursuit, including the potential for unintended consequences and the need to ensure that AGI is aligned with human values.
Despite the risks, the potential benefits of AGI are enormous, including solving some of the world’s most complex problems, such as climate change, disease eradication, and poverty.
DeepMind has made significant progress in AI research, including its breakthrough AlphaGo program that defeated human world champions in the ancient game of Go. Achieving AGI within the next 10 years would be a significant milestone in AI development and could change the course of human history.