Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis explains what needs to happen to move from chatbots to AGI

• AI leaders disagree on how long it will take to realize AGI, a machine that can reason like humans.
• Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says "AI agents" are the next phase of AI after chatbots.
• These systems will be able to plan, act, reason, and use tools, among other traits, he said.

Experts are divided on what it'll take to achieve artificial general intelligence — a still hypothetical form of robot intelligence that mimics human abilities.

According to Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind and a recently minted Nobel laureate , there isn't any secret formula to get there.

At The Times Tech Summit earlier this month, Hassabis said the next iteration of AI after chatbots like ChatGPT — which passively answers questions, summarizes text, and does research — will be agent-based systems with the following traits and skills:

• Planning . These systems can think ahead, plan a trip, or book tickets.
• Acting . They need to be able to take action in the real world.
• Reasoning . They should think through problems. Hassabis pointed to AlphaGo, DeepMind's AI that first defeated humans in Go, demonstrating reasoning skills in the game's defined domain. The next phase of agent-based systems will apply these skills to real-world contexts.
• Better Memory . They should remember the details they've been told.
• Better Personalization . They should understand a user's preferences, likes, and dislikes.
• Using tools . They can use hardware like robots in the physical world, software like a calculator, or even other AI systems.

Hassabis said at the summit, however, that he thinks the full realization of an artificial general intelligence that can reason as well as humans is still a decade away.