Demis Hassabis said this might be the ‘foothills of the singularity.’ What?

After a couple of hours of apps and itineraries, Google’s big AI presentation turned philosophical.

Image: Google

Welcome to a “profound moment for humanity,” according to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who closed out Google I/O’s keynote presentation on Tuesday, saying:

Just before announcing we’ve possibly arrived at “the foothills of the singularity,” Hassabis introduced Gemini for Science, a set of tools and experiments in Google Labs and Google Antigravity intended for helping with scientific research. According to Hassabis, with tools like these, Google hopes to “reimagine drug discovery with the goal of one day solving all disease.” Tech executives often discuss AI this way, like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella referring to AI as “cognitive amplifier tools” and Luma AI CEO Amit Jain’s claim last year that AI is the key to saving Hollywood.

In an interview with Bloomberg just a few months ago, Hassabis said that “the singularity is another word for a full AGI arriving,” which is not the same definition we’re used to from the likes of Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil.

At the time, even by his measurement, he claimed that “we’re nowhere near that.” When asked about his timeline for achieving AGI, Hassabis said he was standing by his prediction that we have a “50 percent chance of getting there by 2030.”