Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, likened the current influx of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence to the cryptocurrency bubble only last month.
In a Monday statement, Google’s AI chief executive compared the company’s planned investment of over $100 billion in AI research and development to the “crypto frenzy” surrounding digital currencies.
The CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, was questioned at Monday’s TED conference in Vancouver about rumored plans for a data center in the United States by OpenAI and Microsoft, dubbed “Stargate,” according to Bloomberg. Hassabis was speaking about Google’s AI investments. Unnamed sources told The Information that the data center may cost as much as $100 billion and would include a supercomputer with millions of AI processors.
In answer to the question about Stargate, Hassabis said, “We don’t disclose our particular statistics, but I believe we’re spending more than that over time.” Bloomberg said that he declined to elaborate on Google’s budget intentions. He co-founded the AI firm DeepMind in 2010 and Google purchased it in 2014. Hassabis allegedly went on to say that Alphabet, the parent company of Google, had superior computer capacity compared to its competitors, including Microsoft.
“Hassabis said that they realized they would need a lot of computing to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI). That’s why they partnered with Google in 2014.” When AI acquires knowledge across a variety of activities at a human level, “we say that it has achieved artificial general intelligence (AGI).”
Hassabis expressed his concern to the Financial Times in March that the massive investment in artificial intelligence (AI) is similar to the excitement surrounding cryptocurrency and is diverting focus from the “phenomenal” research and science that went into its creation.
He drew parallels between AI investment and crypto and other related fields, saying, “The investment in AI carries with it a whole attendant lot of hype and maybe some grifting.” He went on to say, “The feeling has now spilled over into AI, which I think is a little sad.”
Nevertheless, according to Hassabis, the business is “just touching the surface” of its potential. “We may be entering a new Renaissance, a golden age of scientific discovery,” he said.
Also Read: Puffer Finance raises $18M as liquid staking industry heats up
Wallets