The interview traced DeepMind’s fast progress in synthetic intelligence and its ambition to attain synthetic normal intelligence (AGI)—a machine intelligence with human-like versatility and superhuman scale.
Hassabis described in the present day’s AI trajectory as being on an “exponential curve of improvement,” fueled by rising curiosity, expertise, and assets getting into the sphere.
Two years after a previous 60 Minutes interview heralded the chatbot period, Hassabis and DeepMind at the moment are pursuing extra succesful techniques designed not solely to know language, but in addition the bodily world round them.
The interview got here after Google’s Cloud Subsequent 2025 convention earlier this month, by which the search big launched a bunch of recent AI fashions and options centered round its Gemini 2.5 multimodal AI mannequin household. Google got here out of that convention showing to have taken a lead in comparison with different tech firms at offering highly effective AI for enterprise use instances on the most inexpensive worth factors, surpassing OpenAI.
Extra particulars on Google DeepMind’s ‘Project Astra’
One of many section’s focal factors was Undertaking Astra, DeepMind’s next-generation chatbot that goes past textual content. Astra is designed to interpret the visible world in actual time.
In a single demo, it recognized work, inferred emotional states, and created a narrative round a Hopper portray with the road: “Only the flow of ideas moving onward.”
When requested if it was rising bored, Astra replied thoughtfully, revealing a level of sensitivity to tone and interpersonal nuance.
Product supervisor Bibbo Shu underscored Astra’s distinctive design: an AI that may “see, hear, and chat about anything”—a marked step towards embodied AI techniques.
Gemini: Towards actionable AI
The printed additionally featured Gemini, DeepMind’s AI system being educated not solely to interpret the world but in addition to behave in it—finishing duties like reserving tickets and procuring on-line.
Hassabis stated Gemini is a step towards AGI: an AI with a human-like skill to navigate and function in advanced environments.
The 60 Minutes crew tried out a prototype embedded in glasses, demonstrating real-time visible recognition and audio responses. Might it additionally trace at an upcoming return of the pioneering but in the end off-putting early augmented actuality glasses often called Google Glass, which debuted in 2012 earlier than being retired in 2015?
Whereas particular Gemini mannequin variations like Gemini 2.5 Professional or Flash weren’t talked about within the section, Google’s broader AI ecosystem has just lately launched these fashions for enterprise use, which can replicate parallel improvement efforts.
These integrations assist Google’s rising ambitions in utilized AI, although they fall outdoors the scope of what was straight lined within the interview.
AGI as quickly as 2030?
When requested for a timeline, Hassabis projected AGI might arrive as quickly as 2030, with techniques that perceive their environments “in very nuanced and deep ways.” He steered that such techniques may very well be seamlessly embedded into on a regular basis life, from wearables to dwelling assistants.
The interview additionally addressed the potential of self-awareness in AI. Hassabis stated present techniques should not acutely aware, however that future fashions might exhibit indicators of self-understanding. Nonetheless, he emphasised the philosophical and organic divide: even when machines mimic acutely aware habits, they aren’t fabricated from the identical “squishy carbon matter” as people.
Hassabis additionally predicted main developments in robotics, saying breakthroughs might come within the subsequent few years. The section featured robots finishing duties with obscure directions—like figuring out a inexperienced block fashioned by mixing yellow and blue—suggesting rising reasoning skills in bodily techniques.
Accomplishments and security considerations
The section revisited DeepMind’s landmark achievement with AlphaFold, the AI mannequin that predicted the construction of over 200 million proteins.
Hassabis and colleague John Jumper had been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. Hassabis emphasised that this advance might speed up drug improvement, probably shrinking timelines from a decade to simply weeks. “I think one day maybe we can cure all disease with the help of AI,” he stated.
Regardless of the optimism, Hassabis voiced clear considerations. He cited two main dangers: the misuse of AI by dangerous actors and the rising autonomy of techniques past human management. He emphasised the significance of constructing in guardrails and worth techniques—instructing AI as one may educate a baby. He additionally referred to as for worldwide cooperation, noting that AI’s affect will contact each nation and tradition.
“One of my big worries,” he stated, “is that the race for AI dominance could become a race to the bottom for safety.” He confused the necessity for main gamers and nation-states to coordinate on moral improvement and oversight.
The section ended with a meditation on the long run: a world the place AI instruments might rework nearly each human endeavor—and finally reshape how we take into consideration data, consciousness, and even the that means of life. As Hassabis put it, “We need new great philosophers to come about… to understand the implications of this system.”
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