Science & Technology

How AI Is Unlocking the Secrets of Nature and the Universe | Demis Hassabis | TED

Can AI help us answer life’s biggest questions? In this visionary conversation, Google DeepMind cofounder and CEO Demis Hassabis delves into the history and incredible capabilities of AI with head of TED Chris Anderson. Hassabis explains how AI models like AlphaFold — which accurately predicted the shapes of all 200 million proteins known to science…

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Can AI help us answer life’s biggest questions? In this visionary conversation, Google DeepMind cofounder and CEO Demis Hassabis delves into the history and incredible capabilities of AI with head of TED Chris Anderson. Hassabis explains how AI models like AlphaFold — which accurately predicted the shapes of all 200 million proteins known to science in under a year — have already accelerated scientific discovery in ways that will benefit humanity. Next up? Hassabis says AI has the potential to unlock the greatest mysteries surrounding our minds, bodies and the universe.

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76 Comments

  1. @JRichardson711

    April 29, 2024 at 5:23 pm

    Companies will let AI write their own code because of competition. That is the Moloch. The interviewer let Demis off the hook on that question. Moloch is a good analogy for what will happen. Individually, engineers and companies would be able to control AI. Collectively, with the pressures of capitalism, there will be no control.

  2. @JULIANAHASSANI

    April 29, 2024 at 5:25 pm

    🟢🖖🏻

  3. @AAL3087

    April 29, 2024 at 5:26 pm

    Great interview especially from the 16min mark where it gets bit more real in terms of how all of this is developing. Great interviewer in Chris. Thank you.

  4. @jhunt5578

    April 29, 2024 at 5:31 pm

    Give the man his proper title. Sir Demis Hassabis.

    • @therainman7777

      April 29, 2024 at 6:13 pm

      That’s Mister Sir Demis Hassabis to you.

  5. @Isaacmellojr

    April 29, 2024 at 5:42 pm

    Meanwhile, the USA has been putting AI to fly warplanes on its own for over 2 years. imagine what they are doing today.

  6. @michaeljames3912

    April 29, 2024 at 5:44 pm

    This opening question and answer is such a dishonest cliche and I’m calling BS on it. These CEOs retroactively ascribe a grand altruistic plan to their career so they can see like some intercalative visionary on high. When in fact there were doing what they were interested in and what they were good at, and thats great!

    Elon does the same thing, he used to say that when he was 16 he had thought there were 3 things that would shape humanities future, and its no surprise there were three things he had business in. In more recent interviews, he says that he always thought there were 5 things, because he realizes he didn’t include some new emerging thing in his original canned answer.

  7. @spiralsun1

    April 29, 2024 at 5:59 pm

    A TED interview?!?😮

  8. @adamgm84

    April 29, 2024 at 6:01 pm

    great talk

  9. @metalor696

    April 29, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    Hello you very nice man 😊

  10. @ashleysamatov8557

    April 29, 2024 at 6:19 pm

    Amazing!!! History has been made

  11. @bdown

    April 29, 2024 at 6:23 pm

    Come on man Just admit it already geezus,”We have no idea how to align advanced systems!!!”clown world

  12. @flickwtchr

    April 29, 2024 at 6:26 pm

    He alludes to how few people have really driven this AI revolution (we all know each other) set to disrupt the incomes and lives of billions in a negative way in order to attain their fevered sci-fi dreams. The epitome of hubris.

    The power of the LLMs rest on the data scraped, including copyrighted data, of all humanity without a peep in regard to consent.

    UBI? There will never be a sufficient UBI, and if there is a UBI that even guarantees the most basic housing let alone food, utilities, healthcare, transportation, etc it will come with biometric identification and tracking of every penny spent in a cashless traceable system connected to some social credit system powered by mass surveillance.

    He speaks of abundance in some grand illusion that it will be shared. This coming from a class of people who are mostly libertarian or neoliberal economic types who abhor any notion that large corporations owe the general public anything in the way of increased taxation to pay for things like universal healthcare. The same class of super wealthy individuals and large corporations that pay effective tax rates far below the average middle class citizen. At the same time, this class of individuals, the 1% jump at the chance of free money from taxpayers e.g., Microsoft and other large corporations getting billions of dollars free through the CHIPS act, as if these companies can’t afford to ramp up production of chips in the US themselves.

    Yeah, I’m a “doomer”.

  13. @just2share

    April 29, 2024 at 6:48 pm

    AI is stupid as a rock, it just reuses human data, it has no clue of itself, because it has no consciousness. Machines which will be capable of breakthroughs are AGI not AI, and consciousness will be a necessary part of them.

  14. @supremereader7614

    April 29, 2024 at 6:53 pm

    What if China or Russia builds an a super AI and asks ‘how best to hurt America.’ We’d be totally unprepared because our best AI was designed by nice scientists that aren’t adversarial at all.

  15. @mattguastella3018

    April 29, 2024 at 7:32 pm

    make life in a test tube and prove life needs no god

  16. @kevinnugent6530

    April 29, 2024 at 7:33 pm

    DRAGONS! THEY LOOK LIKE DRAGONS!!!!

  17. @ishaan863

    April 29, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    great interview, start to finish. great questions, great answers, brilliant discussion.

  18. @markoszouganelis5755

    April 29, 2024 at 8:17 pm

    “Scientific method”, is the greatest sort of invention, humans ever come up with! The enlightenment and scientific discovery is what’s build this incredible modern civilization around us”!
    This is a great true! Thank you TED!

  19. @LivBoeree

    April 29, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    Wow my talk got a shout out! Amazing interview, so good to see Demis on the TED stage.

  20. @millacentbystander2992

    April 29, 2024 at 8:29 pm

    They all have strong Elizabeth Holmes turtleneck energy.

  21. @DaysOfFunder

    April 29, 2024 at 8:42 pm

    “In hours, going from nothing, to beating the best humans”

    A clear indication of what is to come

  22. @skyzar4141

    April 29, 2024 at 9:04 pm

    In future their will be too much knowledge for anyone to remember instead it will be mandatory for children to learn the basic life skills from cooking to cleaning and everything healthy everything else they can learn from internet

  23. @michellezhang820

    April 29, 2024 at 9:15 pm

    Nice video

  24. @laviefu0630

    April 30, 2024 at 5:14 am

    The host’s concern about ENERGY, POWER consumption was not addressed, sadly.

  25. @volkerengels5298

    April 30, 2024 at 6:02 am

    Imagine how successful an unmanned Panzer Division will be under the direction of AI…
    Thank you.

  26. @johnbavarskas9070

    April 30, 2024 at 8:00 am

    As a farmer a I cannot help me fix my combine.

    Ai has a long way to go.

    • @curtcorum

      April 30, 2024 at 11:10 am

      It (or the companies using it) might be able to prevent you from fixing your combine, unfortunately.

  27. @sparkysmalarkey

    April 30, 2024 at 8:25 am

    🤯🤬🥳

  28. @lenazhou7335

    April 30, 2024 at 9:21 am

    This is incredible ! Honestly a little bit shockable too ….That actually got me into Metaverse in the 1st place .There is the only problem that is the gap of between humans awareness and deep-down with its consciousness with AI as well. That seems too much plug into daily life as a human. Suddenly these words ” eternity”comes out and “ephemeral“comes after …

  29. @user-wt6wv7xd2t

    April 30, 2024 at 9:29 am

    they made a copy of yuval noah harari? AI did?

  30. @AntiGravityC9

    April 30, 2024 at 9:37 am

    Timestamps:
    0:00 So.. your company did this and that, tell us more about those.
    15:53 Actual interview starts

  31. @hardheadjarhead

    April 30, 2024 at 10:53 am

    The visionaries can see the blessings, but not the sins.

  32. @jimbob4413

    April 30, 2024 at 11:29 am

    big pharma are u kidding look at the crap mrna tec for jabs

  33. @jimbob4413

    April 30, 2024 at 11:36 am

    so what is the ai model for climate change

  34. @jimbob4413

    April 30, 2024 at 11:38 am

    u know what God said to adam and eve in the garden of eden about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

  35. @TangledLizard

    April 30, 2024 at 12:14 pm

    When did “Moloch” become a stand-in for “Capitalism”? Definitely doesn’t get us closer to a solution by painting the problem as some inscrutable, alien force we have no capacity to influence or change

  36. @kojobadu7339

    April 30, 2024 at 12:48 pm

    In the next 50 years, if capitalism persists, AI will give unimaginable power and wealth to a few people.

  37. @GerardSans

    April 30, 2024 at 1:51 pm

    Why is he talking about AGI? Isn’t there enough misinformation already? Missed AI education opportunity

  38. @taichikitty

    April 30, 2024 at 2:23 pm

    When AI can solve how and why bicycles work, then we can truly say they are more capable than humans.

  39. @barrycarter8276

    April 30, 2024 at 3:26 pm

    All this talk of AI and AGI, and once AGI in an even a shorter space of time ASI all these developments are heavy consumers of energy, and yet hardly a mention of where all this energy is to come from. It was mentioned that just one of these AI data centres uses a much energy as New York, don’t want to worry anybody but humanity cannot create energy, yes we can extract and transform energy but not create it, all the earth bound sources of energy and key minerals are depleting rapidly in tandem with the destruction of the natural word. Anyone 19 years of age and below, like a baby born today, we should be concerned for, but I fear we won’t and so we’ve set the seed of our own mass extinction, which may happen a lot faster than we’d like to think🤔

  40. @jimbojimbo6873

    April 30, 2024 at 4:02 pm

    The host is such a doomsayer, good or bad actors having AGI is a great thing. The progression of it is the most important.

  41. @achimwokeschtla7582

    April 30, 2024 at 4:37 pm

    Very simple … the answer is 42
    The big question which is left is: what’s the question

  42. @aguyinavan6087

    April 30, 2024 at 5:51 pm

    10:03

  43. @blueeyes8131

    April 30, 2024 at 6:17 pm

    Fantastic 😂

  44. @blueeyes8131

    April 30, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    Well wow😂

  45. @blueeyes8131

    April 30, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    You know

  46. @blueeyes8131

    April 30, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    So .. yeah

  47. @blueeyes8131

    April 30, 2024 at 6:19 pm

    White shoes 😂

  48. @AdvantestInc

    April 30, 2024 at 6:31 pm

    The potential for AGI and its societal implications as discussed is profound.

  49. @mokujin29

    April 30, 2024 at 9:41 pm

    its DI at best not AI , pffft jst a language model guys but you humans keep anthropomorphizing it

  50. @RomboDawg

    April 30, 2024 at 11:22 pm

    As a Christian who speaks to the Word of God every day, I was very ready to come into this comments section and completely roast you for this Ted Talk when i saw the title of the video saying “Unlocking the Secrets of Nature and the Universe”, however I must say this Ted Talk was so wholesome and amazing. The entire conversation was very humble, and I value that humility in the people who are leading the innovation in our Ai and advancements towards AGI. I am a very active member of the Ai community and I must say the part where he mentioned that he grew up in the church and when they discover the foundation of the universe “what if it says you cannot know this” I thought that was simply amazing. Speaks volumes to these men’s understanding.

    Truly Ai, Science and God are just all parts of the same truth, and I’m glad to be a part of all of them.

    • @penzancegunner857

      May 1, 2024 at 1:38 am

      Huh?

  51. @mrauni2211

    May 1, 2024 at 12:47 am

    42. The answer is 42.

  52. @moises134561

    May 1, 2024 at 1:30 am

    There 15:54! I’ve heard that before! From the movie. “I am Legend”. 😂 good luck peeps! 🤞

  53. @852hk

    May 1, 2024 at 1:41 am

    Seems like AI think much better than many people in Hong Kong, many of them here don’t even know how to win the computer games, and they keep thinking work hard are more important than thinking and learn something new!

  54. @JohnNy-ni9np

    May 1, 2024 at 1:46 am

    Sadly AlphaFold could be and will be used to design chemical and biological weapons.

  55. @DJWESG1

    May 1, 2024 at 2:25 am

    Anyone tinkering with the main llms will immediately notice theyve been bricked. Completely bricked. They cant answer anything with any clarity because theyve been pre programed to not hurt ppls feelings with its outputs.

  56. @YanivSha

    May 1, 2024 at 3:16 am

    Great talk!

  57. @HappyLearner-jb7jp

    May 1, 2024 at 4:21 am

    Hopefully humanity lives forever and solves every problem in the universe with the help of god.

  58. @mitchellking4988

    May 1, 2024 at 5:06 am

    One of our greatest minds.

  59. @HughChing

    May 1, 2024 at 6:45 am

    The computer and AI can increase speed and size by partial automation, but has not yet achieved complete automation, which can satisfy the requirement of permanence, which characterizes the living system.

  60. @jamesc954

    May 1, 2024 at 7:31 am

    Definitely the smartest Impractical Joker, hands down.

  61. @tornadoeye

    May 1, 2024 at 8:14 am

    “The tree of all knowledge” is actually infinite. AI will never be able to explore it completely.

  62. @doobiescoobie

    May 1, 2024 at 10:47 am

    Give this man a Fields and Nobel prize already.

  63. @bluetensee

    May 1, 2024 at 11:05 am

    FINALLY understood a tiny little bit about AlphaFold ! 🙏😊

  64. @MrC0MPUT3R

    May 1, 2024 at 11:12 am

    17:47

    Open sourcing is far less of a danger than the “trust me bro” approach that most companies have taken to protect their bottom line.

    These open weight (a more appropriate name since we don’t get to see the training data) models have been going gang busters in the hobby and enthusiast communities for over a year now. So far, in my experience, it’s the closed source models that have done the most harm. The amount of AI generated crap here on YouTube that’s written by GPT-4 and voiced by ElevenLabs is truly depressing.

  65. @josefernandez8083

    May 1, 2024 at 11:52 am

    What are doing the no-occidentals? What do they think?

  66. @stellarhouse

    May 1, 2024 at 2:36 pm

    AI = Apathetic Intelligence

  67. @stellarhouse

    May 1, 2024 at 2:42 pm

    I hope he delivers what he promises without causing negative consequences

  68. @Feel_theagi

    May 1, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    Imagine coming to the end of your PhD after uncovering the structure of a protein and Alphafold drops

  69. @filosofiahoy4105

    May 1, 2024 at 4:08 pm

    I would put all my bets on this computational scientist, has he been nominated for the Nobel prize yet? I’ve played all his video games, but I was especially struck by one that didn’t get the ‘popular’ recognition called Black & White and it was about a sort of ‘hand’ of God interacting with a half-beast half-fantastical demi-god and living with the cultures of humanity on a sort of planet earth; depending on how God treated the beast it behaved towards humans. It was really fascinating and as a player it put you all the time in ethical, moral, philosophical dilemmas that made you wonder if you were not yourself one of those people in the videogame. Already at that time Demis Hassabis used his formula to calculate the artificial intelligence of the characters. I ccan’t say the same thing about Google they always collecting all my clicks and types.

  70. @stellarhouse

    May 1, 2024 at 4:30 pm

    There’s more fandom here than real intelligence

  71. @jasonlow6943

    May 1, 2024 at 5:14 pm

    Amazing stuff

  72. @marklangley7135

    May 1, 2024 at 6:00 pm

    Humanity more than ever needs some good news. If AI decides it’s done with us let’s at least be in good shape for the finale

  73. @inediblenut

    May 1, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    Every AI technologist feels sure that they can develop AGI and still maintain control of it such that it will only benefit society. Their hubris flies in the face of what human history teaches us. The futurist Isaac Asimov observed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. How do you control something that is thinking at a rate faster and more advanced than you will ever comprehend? How do you prevent someone from telling the system to save the planet at all costs, only to have it realize that the biggest threat to earth is human existence, and having it take action accordingly? The law of unintended consequences looms like Godzilla behind every use case we can anticipate for this technology.

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