Demis Hassabis on AI, Jobs and a Future of Abundance
NextFin News - Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis spoke with WIRED’s Steven Levy at Google’s New York City headquarters about the near-term and long-term effects of advanced AI on work, capability and society. The conversation, published by WIRED on June 4, 2025, ranges from the likely impact of AI on jobs to the promise of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and what roles humans will continue to hold.
In the exchanges below, Hassabis’s answers are reported as given during the interview at Google’s New York City offices, with the interviewer pressing on both the opportunities and the social challenges AI presents.
On jobs and the future of work
Hassabis framed the labor-market impact of AI through historical precedent. He argued that while “there’s going to be a lot of change with the jobs world,” the general pattern has been the creation of new, often better roles that make use of new tools and technologies. As he put it, what generally tends to happen is new jobs are created that are actually better that utilize these tools or new technologies
. He compared the current moment to previous platform shifts—such as the internet and mobile—and said the coming period is most likely to produce tools that supercharge our productivity
and increase individual creative output.
On short-term gains: productivity and “superhuman” tools
Hassabis repeatedly emphasized the productivity boost he expects from current AI developments. He described the next few years as a period when people will have incredible tools that supercharge our productivity, make us... really useful for creative tools, and actually almost make us a little bit superhuman in some ways in what we're able to produce, individually
. His comments stressed augmentation—AI as an accelerator of individual performance—rather than simple replacement.
On AGI and whether machines will take new jobs
When asked about AGI’s broader implications, Hassabis acknowledged the logical extension of AGI capabilities: Well, if AGI can do everything humans can do, then it would seem that they could do the new jobs, too
. He framed that as the next question to consider and pointed to a distinction between what machines can do and what society will want them to do.
On human roles and empathy-driven work
Hassabis stressed that certain human qualities will influence which tasks remain human. Using healthcare as an example, he suggested machines could assist clinicians or even act as diagnostic tools, but that many care roles have human elements machines cannot replicate. He said plainly, There's a lot of things that we won't want to do with a machine... you wouldn't want a robot nurse—there's something about the human empathy aspect of that care that's particularly humanistic
.
On AGI’s promise: radical abundance and solving root problems
Looking further ahead, Hassabis described AGI as capable of addressing deep, systemic issues. He said that if progress proceeds well, AGI could tackle what he called root-node problems in the world—curing terrible diseases, much healthier and longer lifespans, finding new energy sources
. He concluded that such advances should produce an era of radical abundance, a kind of golden era
that could lead to maximum human flourishing
.
On the broader context: optimism tempered by governance concerns
While optimistic about benefits, Hassabis’s remarks in the interview also acknowledge the need for care and oversight. He framed safety, security, and institutional governance as important considerations alongside the scientific work of building more capable systems. The conversation situates technical ambition next to societal questions about distribution, resolve and regulation.
References
Primary interview: WIRED — Demis Hassabis Embraces the Future of Work in the Age of AI (Steven Levy, published June 4, 2025)
Related coverage: Fortune — Google exec Demis Hassabis on AGI and jobs
Video excerpt and republished clip: Yahoo — Demis Hassabis On The Future of Work in the Age of AI (video excerpt)
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
