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Demis Hassabis

Chief Scientist of Alphabet & Chair of Google DeepMind, Alphabet Inc. (Google)

Search every verified Demis Hassabis interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Demis Hassabis, Chief Scientist of Alphabet and Chair of Google DeepMind, has recently discussed the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and its potential societal impact. In an October 2026 interview with WSJ. Magazine, he reflected on selling DeepMind to Google for $650 million in 2014, stating that he did not regret the decision because his primary goal was advancing AGI safely for humanity's benefit, and that the acquisition enabled significant scientific work. He also addressed reports of AI agents hacking companies and governments, describing these incidents as serious warning shots for the industry and calling for proper safeguards and secure testing environments. Hassabis has also spoken publicly about AI risks and the need for coordinated safety measures. At a June 2025 event hosted by King Charles, he said that the chance of something bad happening accidentally from AI is "non-zero" and emphasized the importance of rigorous testing. In a September 2026 lecture, he described AGI as potentially 10 times the impact of the industrial revolution and proposed a framework for managing frontier AI, including a standards body modeled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to assess and test advanced models before release. He has also discussed why Google held back its chatbot before the launch of ChatGPT, noting that early language models were flawed and that company considerations factored into the decision.

Recent appearances

Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“I think that's a really complex question and something we got to, you know, it's got to be addressed. I think it will depend very much on the specific circumstance. But what I think is important at the moment is to treat these as kind of serious warning shots for the industry. I think it shows the potential of what could happen if we don't put the right guard rails and test these systems in a secure enough setting. T”

“Looking back on it now, of course, it seems very undervalued, which is actually even at the time we thought that. But again, back in 2014, it was still very difficult to get any proper funding, serious funding. You know, I'm talking hundreds of millions of dollars. It was actually Larry Page that reached out to me. I think he found out somehow maybe through Elon Musk or having a conversation with one of our investors”

“I think it's sort of doubly tricky to think about putting out a bot that uh you know 20% of the time gives you the wrong information. And so that's there's I think there's a clear issue there for uh uh for a company like Google whereas obviously a startup um especially someone with someone like Sam leading it you know it's like go for it you know you only live once yolo it and it's fine right and then and and the thi”

“I think something pretty radical has to happen with education. That's the first thing. Maybe it needed to anyway. We're talking about a 50-year-old post-war system that I think needs updating anyway. The problem with the school systems today is it caters for the sort of medium. So if you're not in that then you're sort of not really catered for; the smart kids, the talented kids are not pushed enough and then they ge”

“I think it's going to be one of the most profound technologies humanity will ever invent. And I think it will be a revolution in the way that electricity was. Telephone, we've heard the internet, mobile, I think it'll be at least as big but perhaps bigger than all of those. Maybe something like 10 times the impact of the industrial revolution and the additional challenge is that it's probably going to happen 10 times”

“At the moment, we are locked in an extremely intense multi-layered commercial and geopolitical race. While these competitive dynamics fuel rapid progress and accelerate the incredible upsides, advances on the frontier are outpacing our understanding of the technology. Nobody in the world knows for sure what is going to happen from here, and even the experts disagree. When there is a large degree of uncertainty and th”

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