Google DeepMind CEO Says AI Will Let Us "Colonize the Galaxy" Starting in Five Years

In the age of artificial intelligence, CEOs have ranked among the tech's biggest cheerleaders.

Drawing on sci-fi tropes and ill-defined industry terms, the pitch usually involves a confident prediction, like that humans and AI will learn to live in "peaceful coexistence" — just imagine the alternative! — and an arbitrary timetable, like that AI will result in a doomsday scenario by 2027 (unless, that is, lawmakers give these massive tech firms carte blanche to do whatever they want.)

And unlike previous tech hype cycles like Web 3, AI's most vocal champions are often respected industry leaders and mainstream media pundits. For a perfect example, look no further than Google's Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, the tech giant's British-American AI research lab.

Hassabis, who has achieved knighthood as well as a Nobel prize, recently claimed that there's a "50 percent chance" of reaching "artificial general intelligence" (AGI) — vaguely understood as the point when AI reaches or exceeds human-level intelligence — within the next 5 to 10 years.

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Minas Marios Kontis

Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur and host of AI Greece Podcast. Founder & CEO of Univation, empowering 35,000+ students across 40+ universities with AI-driven education. Started coding at 12 with a 100k+ download transportation app.