Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says the industry may only be a few years away from AGI, with today’s AI agents acting as an early “practice run” for much more powerful systems still to come.
The tone shift is the real story. AI leaders have talked about AGI for years, but Hassabis now sounds far more convinced the industry has found the path toward it, pointing to coding agents and AI systems already making researchers dramatically more productive.
He also warned society is still nowhere near prepared for what happens once AI starts accelerating its own development. The industry conversation is quietly shifting from “this could happen someday” to “this is starting to happen now.”
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For decades, firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG made billions selling time. Junior consultants handled the research, built the decks, and crunched the numbers while clients paid enormous fees tied to hours worked.
AI is starting to break that model.
McKinsey says roughly a quarter of its fees now come from outcome-based pricing instead of traditional billable-hour structures, while internal AI tools are already saving consultants up to 30% of their time on knowledge work.
The strange part is that the firms helping companies adapt to AI are now being forced to reinvent themselves because of it.
And consulting probably won’t be the last industry dealing with this.
Pope Leo XIV released a major new encyclical on AI this week, and honestly, it’s far more technically aware than most people would expect from the Vatican.
The document warns about emotional manipulation, cultural bias, opaque AI systems, and the growing concentration of power around companies controlling massive datasets.
One section even describes modern AI systems as more “cultivated” than “built,” acknowledging that even the people creating frontier models often don’t fully understand how they work internally.
The broader shift is that AI governance is escaping Silicon Valley. Governments, economists, labour groups, and now even religious institutions are starting to treat AI less like a tech story and more like a societal one.
In other developments
xAI has reportedly warned employees to limit contact with Cursor staff as regulators review a potential acquisition deal between the companies. The move highlights growing scrutiny around AI acquisitions ahead of SpaceX’s planned IPO.
OpenAI and Anthropic are increasingly split on AI’s impact on jobs, with Anthropic warning of large-scale white-collar disruption while OpenAI argues the feared “jobs apocalypse” hasn’t materialised. The divide reflects growing uncertainty around whether AI will mainly replace workers or reshape work more gradually.
DuckDuckGo says app installs jumped as much as 30% after Google’s AI-heavy Search overhaul, with users increasingly looking for ways to avoid AI-generated search results. The surge suggests a growing backlash against AI-first search experiences and demand for more control over how AI is used online.
Huawei says it believes it can match cutting-edge chip manufacturing by 2031, despite years of U.S. sanctions limiting access to advanced semiconductor equipment. The claim signals China’s growing push to build a self-sufficient AI chip ecosystem as tensions with the U.S. over AI infrastructure and Nvidia exports continue to escalate.
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