Nobel Chemist Places Bet on AI Apocalypse, Predicts '5 to 10 Years'
KEY POINTS
- •Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind CEO and 2024 Nobel Chemistry laureate, estimates AGI to be 5 to 10 years away.
- •He warned of evolving risks, including cyberattacks on energy and water infrastructures already possibly underway.
- •Executives from Palo Alto Networks, Sierra, and Box highlighted AI's inevitability and the need to adapt to changing job roles.
At the Axios AI+ SF Summit, Demis Hassabis—Google DeepMind’s CEO, not your friendly neighborhood chemist, despite snagging the Nobel Prize in Chemistry just last year—served up an existential cocktail. This London native confidently pegged artificial general intelligence (AGI) as 5 to 10 years away, with the ominous caveat that it might need "one or two Transformer-level or AlphaGo-level breakthroughs" beyond just scaling. Meanwhile, he cheerfully admitted catastrophic cyberattacks on vital water and energy grids are 'probably almost happening now.' Google's pal Nikesh Arora from Palo Alto Networks joined the party warning everyone their jobs (including his) will morph radically by 2030. Meanwhile, Sierra and Box CEOs debated snake oil vs. generational tech, because what is AI if not a soap opera in silicon?
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Demis Hassabis casually announces AGI in "5 to 10 years"—long enough to panic moderately, short enough to fake preparedness. Meanwhile, hackers are already playing kick-the-grid with energy and water, and Google throws money at cyber defense like a gambler at a Las Vegas slot machine.
AGI’s arrival in 5 to 10 years is tech’s version of 'We’re almost on time,’ as infrastructure crumbles quietly in the background.
Google keeps insisting AGI is just around the corner while its biggest security threat is some hackered blackouts starring energy grids as involuntary extras.
Source: Axios | Published: 12/5/2025 | Author: Ben Berkowitz
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