Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, delivered a lecture on September 14 at an ancient Roman theater at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, where he discussed the rapid evolution of AI. "Normally, it is very difficult to predict the future ten years from now, but because AI changes on a weekly basis, it is even more difficult today," Hassabis said, adding, "The only thing I can say for sure is that big changes are coming."

Regarding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), he presented the view that it could arrive within ten years. He stated that its realization would bring about "radical abundance," while also pointing out that risks exist. As for the skills necessary for the next generation, he emphasized that in addition to traditional fields such as mathematics, science, and the humanities, "learning how to learn"—or meta-skills—is the most critical.

Following the lecture, he met with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis to discuss the expansion of AI utilization in government services. Hassabis is a neuroscientist who was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of AI for protein structure prediction, and was also formerly a shogi prodigy.


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