AI will be a new era for humanity — Google DeepMind CEO

American multinational technology corporation, Google, has announced that the number of users on its main artificial intelligence platform, Gemini, has grown to 900 million in one year.

The update was shared by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google, Sundar Pichai, during this week’s Google I/O event, where he revealed that Gemini’s monthly active users more than doubled from the 400 million recorded last year.

“Last year at I/O, the Gemini app had 400 million monthly active users. Today, we’ve surpassed 900 million, more than doubling in a year. In that same time, daily requests have grown over seven times,” Pichai wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

The announcement comes as Google continues competing with other technology companies in the artificial intelligence industry.

During an interview with ABC News, British artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and entrepreneur, Demis Hassabis spoke about the future of AI and its possible impact on society, science, and jobs.

“I think that AI, it’s actually going to be almost a new era for humanity,” Hassabis said.

Hassabis, who leads Google DeepMind, explained that he believes AI could change the world at a pace faster than the Industrial Revolution.

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“Sometimes I compare it to – you know, it’s gonna be 10 times the impact of the industrial revolution and maybe 10 times faster,” he said.

“And what I would like to see AI being used for is to advance science and medicine – that’s why I spent my whole career working on AI … I see it as the ultimate tool to push forward scientific discovery.”

He also acknowledged concerns about job losses and the effects AI could have on workers across different industries.

“I think there’s a lot of challenges too,” Hassabis acknowledged. “On the one hand, we want to solve disease and help with things like energy … and environmental issues … but it will also disrupt jobs.”

Despite the concerns, he said new opportunities would also emerge as AI continues to grow.

Speaking on how AI should be managed globally, Hassabis said governments, researchers, and society should work together on regulations and standards.

“I don’t think it should be [that way],” he said. “I think there needs to be an international standards approach to this. It should be broader society – and I think maybe that’s starting to happen now.”

He also addressed concerns over rising energy demand linked to AI data centres, saying major technology companies are investing in their own energy infrastructure to reduce pressure on consumers.

“I think AI, in the next 10 years, is going to save far more energy than it uses in the long run,” he added.

(ABC NEWS)