You may have only recently heard about Demis Hassabis. He’s been named one of Time magazine’s “AI architects”, won a Nobel Prize for using the technology to predict protein folding and runs Google’s AI efforts. When the search giant acquired his company DeepMind in 2014, he embraced his new employer’s vast resources to build machines that surpassed human brainpower, so-called artificial general intelligence.

His biggest achievements since then have been to give Google the glow of scientific prestige, with AI systems that beat the world’s top Go players and that Nobel Prize for chemistry. A product breakthrough has long eluded Hassabis, but that could change in 2026 if his unconventional ideas make their way into Google’s second attempt at smart glasses, the kind of development that could mark a full turnaround for a company that was caught on the back foot three years ago by ChatGPT.

When Google acquired his company DeepMind in 2014, Demis Hassabis embraced his new employer’s vast resources to build machines that surpassed human brainpower, so-called artificial general intelligence.Credit: AP

Google plans to launch AI-powered smart glasses next year to compete with similar products from Meta Platforms Inc. It’ll partner with Samsung to make the devices, one of which will come with a small, in-lens display for things such as navigation or translation. They could offer redemption to Hassabis’ company in two ways. First, the original Google Glasses looked so absurd and worked so badly that they ruined the reputation of smart glasses for several years. Stylish, useful AI specs........

© The Sydney Morning Herald