Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, has mentioned that modern-day massive language fashions (LLMs) are nonetheless lacking important capabilities resembling long-term planning, continuous studying, and higher reasoning expertise.
Whereas foundational AI fashions resembling Google’s Gemini 3 can course of textual content, photographs, and video, LLMs nonetheless don’t perceive physics, causality, or how actions have an effect on outcomes over time, in accordance with the Nobel Prize-winning AI researcher. As an alternative, Hassabis believes in growing ‘world fashions’ – AI programs can higher perceive the physics of the world – to fill the gaps that exist at the moment.
“This concept of, like, you already know, the system truly understanding higher the physics of the world, in order that it could actually run simulations, sort of in its thoughts to check its personal hypotheses. You already know, these are issues that you already know the very best scientists do, human scientists do. And to this point, our AI programs, you already know, aren’t ready to try this,” he mentioned on a current podcast hosted by CNBC.
“In the event you actually need to perceive how the world works, in order that perhaps you’ll be able to invent one thing new on the earth, or clarify one thing concerning the world that was not recognized earlier than, which is mainly what scientific principle does, then it’s important to have this correct mannequin of how the world works, beginning with intuitive physics and
and the way the physics of the world works, however all the best way as much as biology, you already know, and economics,” he additional defined.
Hassabis isn’t alone in betting on world fashions as the following frontier of AI. Yann LeCun, former chief AI scientist of Meta and famed AI/ML researcher, has additionally laid out his imaginative and prescient of world fashions as the longer term. In December 2025, LeCun introduced the launch of his new startup referred to as Superior Machine Intelligence (AMI) that will probably be centered on growing world fashions.
Regardless of their shared perception in world fashions, Hassabis and LeCun don’t see eye to eye on a number of points such because the definition of normal intelligence.
LeCun has mentioned that the idea of normal intelligence doesn’t exist as it’s used to designate human-level intelligence, which isn’t normal however super-specialised. “We consider ourselves as being normal, however it’s merely an phantasm as a result of all the issues that we will apprehend are those that we will consider,” the Turing Award winner mentioned.
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Responding to his remarks, Hassabis mentioned that LeCun was “plain incorrect” as he was “complicated normal intelligence with common intelligence”. “Brains are essentially the most beautiful and sophisticated phenomena we all know of within the universe (to this point), and they’re the truth is extraordinarily normal,” Hassabis wrote in a put up on X.