From the age of 4, he had already demonstrated remarkable talent in chess. By 17, he had created his first video game. In 2024, at 48, Demis Hassabis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside his colleague John M. Jumper, for their groundbreaking AI research in protein structure prediction.
Born in London to a Greek-Cypriot father and a mother of Singaporean heritage, Hassabis is now regarded as one of the leading pioneers in artificial intelligence. He is the chief executive officer and co-founder of DeepMind, acquired by Google in 2014.
Last week, Hassabis visited Athens to meet with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and discuss AI, ethics and democracy within the framework of the Athens Innovation 2025 conference. On the occasion of his discussion at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on Friday, he spoke to Kathimerini about the hopes and concerns surrounding “intelligent” technologies. For the first time, he also revealed how the trauma of displacement from Famagusta in 1974 has shaped both his family and himself.
You have an amazing personal story. Based on your experience, what advice would you give to a young person growing up today?
The only certainty is that there will be incredible change over the next 10 years. My advice to young people is to study STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] and experiment with AI because you will always be better off understanding how new technologies work and how they can be used. But don’t neglect meta-skills, like learning how to learn, creativity, adaptability and resilience. They will all be critical for the next generation.
You often talk about the AI revolution being much bigger than the Industrial Revolution. You are one of the few people that can describe our future 10 years down the road. What will the fundamental changes be?
There will be profound change as AI advances. Universal assistants will perform mundane tasks, freeing us up for more creative pursuits. AI tools will help personalize education and curate information for us, allowing us to protect our attention and mindspace from the bombardment of the digital world. AI will also help us design new medicines and materials faster, giving us better batteries and new sources of clean energy. All of this could lead to an era of radical abundance by eliminating the scarcity of water, food, energy and other resources, allowing for maximum human flourishing. But this amazing future depends on society stewarding AI safely and responsibly. Just as with industrialization, the transition will come with challenges. The Industrial Revolution was a net good for society and propelled the world forward. I’m hopeful AI can deliver a similar leap for humanity.
Will an AI “creature” be able to hold a Socratic dialogue on abstract ideas with a real philosopher during our lifetime?
It’s plausible and perhaps even likely. Today’s AI systems are impressive, but they lack some key capabilities for a true Socratic dialogue. They don’t have a deep, conceptual understanding to explain their reasoning, and they can’t pose their own novel questions to explore ideas. Right now, we question and they answer. In the future, they will have to be able to do both in a way that doesn’t mimic us but pushes us to be creative and takes us down new avenues of thought.
There hasn’t been a commercially available AI app that has been proven really profitable… Do you share the concern that AΙ expectations have created a stock market bubble similar to the dot-com one?
In the short term, there is a lot of hype around AI – probably too much – because even though today’s systems are extremely impressive, they also have lots of flaws. Many near-term promises are being made that aren’t really scientifically grounded. But in the medium to longer term, the monumental impact AI is going to have is still underappreciated. It will be the most transformative moment in human history, so I think the investments we’re making are well-justified.
Is China really ahead of the US in terms of AI development? Do you see a new cold war emerging with competing AI platforms? Can Europe become a serious player on this frontier?
The US and the West are ahead of China on AI development currently but China’s domestic AI ecosystem is strong and catching up fast, as shown by recent model releases. Europe (including the UK) can be a serious player. It has real strengths in AI through its history of scientific discovery, incredible academic institutions and strong startup environment. There’s an important role for Europe in working with close allies like the US to shape the responsible development and governance of AI globally. But this will require it to remain innovative, dynamic and at the technical forefront.
You often paint an almost utopian picture of the future, with AI providing solutions to almost every challenge. Does your prediction run the risk of being too optimistic since AI will also create huge disruptions because of massive unemployment and energy depletion?
I’m a cautious optimist. I think artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be one of the most beneficial technologies ever invented. But there are significant risks that have to be managed and there is a high degree of uncertainty. There are technical ways to anticipate and mitigate these risks, but as a society, we should be trying to better understand and prepare for them. We need economists, social scientists, philosophers and other experts to be thinking about the implications of a post-AGI world. A technology with the potential for such profound societal impact must be handled with exceptional care and foresight.
AI is dramatically changing our business, the media business. Any thoughts on how solid news reporting and analysis can survive in the AI era? And do we run the risk of generations of “lazy minds” who will just look for ready, fully digestible answers to everything on their smartphone? Will AI-provided information be controlled by a few info-bosses?
AI can be a powerful tool for journalists, helping them handle more mundane information-gathering tasks so they can spend more time on valuable reporting. Misinformation and deepfakes are real risks but technical solutions exist, like invisible watermarking, to help people distinguish between real and fake information. Universal digital assistants will help us be more productive at work and in our personal lives, freeing up time for creativity and deep thinking. By helping to synthesize and understand information, they could enable us to learn faster. They could also enrich our lives by making better, more personalized recommendations for books, music and other ways we like to spend our time. Ensuring fair and equal access to AI requires careful management and cooperation between governments, academia, civil society, philosophers and the public.
Your father’s family had to abandon their home in Cyprus in 1974. Was this a traumatic moment and an important part of your growing up?
It was a devastating moment for my grandparents because they lost literally everything. They were working in the UK at the time but were sending all their money back to Cyprus to try to build their family home in Famagusta and then eventually go back to live there. They lost everything and I don’t think they ever really fully recovered from it. Obviously, it loomed large as a big part of my upbringing, a sort of unspoken thing always in the background.
