Demis Hassabis: We're three quarters of the way to AGI

Why it matters

DeepMind CEO and Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis at Sequoia AI Ascent 2026: why AGI is achievable by 2030, why drug discovery could collapse from ten years to days, and why information — not matter or energy — is the most fundamental substance in the universe. In 26 minutes, the man who made 'accelerating science' his mission lays out the conviction he spent 20 years validating.

Key takeaways

• AGI timeline: achievable before 2030 — 'we're three quarters of the way there'.
• Drug discovery revolution: AI will compress target identification to drug candidate from ten years to days.
• Information as the most fundamental entity: more basic than matter and energy — the philosophical starting point for understanding intelligence.
• Next milestone after AlphaFold: from protein structure to cell simulation to the virtual cell.
• 'Scientific discovery itself can be accelerated' — the core bet behind DeepMind's business model.