Demis Hassabis: We're Three Quarters of the Way to AGI

Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and 2024 Nobel laureate in chemistry for AlphaFold, joins Sequoia partner Konstantine Buhler at AI Ascent 2026 for a wide-ranging conversation about the path to AGI and what comes after. He explains why he believes AGI is achievable by 2030, why drug discovery could collapse from ten years to days, and why we should think of information, not matter or energy, as the most fundamental substance in the universe. Also: what Einstein would tell us about the limits of today's models, and why the next year or two will be critical for humanity. 00:00 Introduction 00:38 Demis’ Origins and Common Thread 01:29 Games as AI Training Ground 02:59 Elixir Studios Startup Lessons 04:39 Founding DeepMind in 2009 07:25 DeepMind Mission and AGI Bet 08:52 AI for Science Culture 10:37 Biology Breakthroughs and Isomorphic 12:42 New Sciences via Simulations 20:29 Consciousness Philosophy