Venture capitalists have rushed to buy into groups such as former OpenAI executive Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machine Lab, which was valued<\/a> at $10bn just six months after it was founded and despite giving few details on what it is building. <\/p>\n The start-up recently lost a number of key staff, raising doubts about its long-term prospects. There have also been investor concerns over the multibillion-dollar race to build AI infrastructure, including a series of debt-fuelled deals that rely on usage of the technology to keep growing.<\/p>\n Hassabis said demand for AI across Google\u2019s products, such as its latest Gemini 3 model, was stronger than ever, insisting it would prove to be \u201cthe most transformative technology probably ever invented\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the bubble bursts we will be fine,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an amazing business that we can add AI features to and get more productivity out of.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Google rebounded from a difficult period since the release of OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT in 2022. Its AI models now surpass the performance of its smaller rival and the search giant is closing the gap in chatbot users.<\/p>\n Video: Google DeepMind chief warns AI investment looks \u2018bubble-like\u2019 | FT Interview<\/a><\/p>\n The momentum has driven parent company Alphabet\u2019s valuation past $4tn, making it the second-largest company in the world after chipmaker Nvidia. <\/p>\n Hassabis also argued western companies still have a lead against China on AI development. <\/p>\n About a year ago Chinese group DeepSeek surprised Silicon Valley by developing a powerful and free-to-access AI model for a fraction of the price of its American competitors. The release also shook US public markets, where there is a heavy concentration of capital in Big Tech stocks.<\/p>\n Hassabis said there had been \u201coverreaction in the west\u201d to DeepSeek, arguing \u201cthe Chinese labs haven\u2019t proven they can innovate beyond the frontier yet\u201d. He said US tech companies still had a lead of \u201csix months or so\u201d.<\/p>\n However, in the past year, China has invested heavily in developing leading models that can be freely used by developers in applications, leapfrogging<\/a> American rivals in \u201copen\u201d AI development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hassabis admitted Chinese companies were \u201cmore focused on the near-term applications\u201d, in the hunt for immediate revenues \u201crather than maybe these more research-heavy frontier capabilities\u201d required to achieve artificial general intelligence \u2014 or machines that can surpass human abilities. That remains the lofty goal of US-backed groups such as DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic.<\/p>\n Debate at Davos also centred on the growing risks and harms around AI. <\/p>\n In recent months, OpenAI was hit by lawsuits over claims its chatbot had encouraged young people to commit suicide. Elon Musk\u2019s xAI was heavily criticised<\/a> after it emerged its Grok chatbot had been used to generate sexualised images of women and children.<\/p>\n Hassabis said it was imperative to focus on safe and responsible AI development, and for the AI industry to show the general public what AI\u2019s benefits are.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, that\u2019s doubling down on our AI for science and AI for medicine work and things like that, which are kind of unequivocal goods in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n
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