{"id":595210,"date":"2026-05-20T23:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595210\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T23:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:37:16","slug":"if-engineers-are-becoming-three-or-four-times-more-productive-then-we-just-want-to-do-three-or-four-times-more-stuff-google-deepmind-ceo-reckons-ai-induced-job-cuts-arent-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595210\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If engineers are becoming three or four times more productive, then we just [want to] do three or four times more stuff’: Google DeepMind CEO reckons AI-induced job cuts aren’t inevitable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Efficiency gains are often cited as the reason to bring more AI into the workplace, though concerns over resulting job losses are never far behind<\/a>. It might surprise you, then, to learn that the head of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, actually thinks job cuts caused by AI are not the way forward.<\/p>\n

Today’s wealth of machine learning tools means that anyone can vibe code\u2014including this dog<\/a>. Still, Hassabis thinks it’s premature to call time on software development as a profession. \u201cI have no idea why people are going around talking with certainty about that,\u201d Hassabis told Wired this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In that same conversation, he later went on to criticise companies looking to replace engineers with AI, saying, “I think it’s a lack of imagination\u2014and a lack of understanding of what’s really going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

So, what future does Hassabis envision instead? Rather than efficiency gains at the cost of livelihoods, Hassabis instead asks why not keep the efficiency and the engineers; he says, “From my point of view, from DeepMind and Google’s point of view, if engineers are becoming three or four times more productive, then we just [want to] do three or four times more stuff.”<\/p>\n

To me, that sounds a lot like ‘doing more stuff with the same amount of resources’ and not necessarily something ultimately sustainable, but then I’m not a software engineer. “I have a million ideas, from lab drug discovery to game design,\u201d Hassabis continues, \u201cI’d love to have some free engineers to go and do those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Demis\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Jack Taylor via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

You’ll recall that many moons ago, Hassabis worked in the games industry<\/a>, spending a number of years at Lionhead Studios before moving on to found Elixir Studios in 1998. Hassabis designed and directed 2003’s Republic: The Revolution, and also worked on 2004’s Evil Genius, though the studio closed in 2005.<\/p>\n

Hassabis also reflected on the subject of games and how today’s AI has yet to create a killer title without human help. He said, “I think there’s something missing.”<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.<\/p>\n

Last year, Google DeepMind’s own Genie 3 could generate an interactive world that ran at 720p, 24fps, and only remembered what you did for one minute<\/a>. The model has come a ways since then, with the public preview version<\/a> now simulating physics and generating the path in front of your player avatar in real time.<\/p>\n

That said, The Verge noted in their hands-on<\/a> that Genie 3’s overall output remains “much worse than an actual handcrafted video game or interactive experience.” Not to bang on about the nebulous concept of ‘human creativity’, but I think it’s clear that ‘something missing’ may never be in the grasp of a generative AI model’s ability.<\/p>\n

\"Razer<\/p>\n

Best gaming rigs 2026<\/p>\n

All our favorite gear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Efficiency gains are often cited as the reason to bring more AI into the workplace, though concerns over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-595210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}