logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2022
32m 58s

The road to AGI

Hannah Fry
About this episode

Hannah meets DeepMind co-founder and chief scientist Shane Legg, the man who coined the phrase ‘artificial general intelligence’, and explores how it might be built. Why does Shane think AGI is possible? When will it be realised? And what could it look like? Hannah also explores a simple theory of using trial and error to reach AGI and takes a deep dive into MuZero, an AI system which mastered complex board games from chess to Go, and is now generalising to solve a range of important tasks in the real world.

 

For questions or feedback on the series, message us on Twitter @DeepMind or email podcast@deepmind.com. 

 

Interviewees: DeepMind’s Shane Legg, Doina Precup, Dave Silver & Jackson Broshear

 

Credits

Presenter: Hannah Fry

Series Producer: Dan Hardoon

Production support: Jill Achineku

Sounds design: Emma Barnaby

Music composition: Eleni Shaw

Sound Engineer: Nigel Appleton

Editor: David Prest

Commissioned by DeepMind

 

Thank you to everyone who made this season possible! 

 

Further reading: 

Real-world challenges for AGI, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/real-world-challenges-for-agi

An executive primer on artificial general intelligence, McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/an-executive-primer-on-artificial-general-intelligence

Mastering Go, chess, shogi and Atari without rules, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/muzero-mastering-go-chess-shogi-and-atari-without-rules

What is AGI?, Medium: https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/what-is-agi-99cdb671c88e

A Definition of Machine Intelligence by Shane Legg, arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/0712.3329

Reward is enough by David Silver, ScienceDirect: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370221000862

Up next
Yesterday
Genie 3: An infinite world model with Shlomi Fruchter and Jack Parker-Holder
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry speaks with Jack Parker-Holder and Shlomi Fruchter about Genie 3, a general-purpose world model that can generate an unprecedented diversity of interactive environments. The conversation covers how this model's auto-regressive nature allows f ... Show More
56m 40s
Jul 10
A Whistle Stop Tour of AI Creation with Paige Bailey
This week's episode is a slight departure from our usual deep dives. Join Paige Bailey, DevRel lead, as she guides Hannah Fry though some of her favorite AI tools. Having spent years understanding the 'what' of these models, Hannah finally gets to experience the 'how’ – from gene ... Show More
29m 42s
Jun 19
The Nature of AI: Solving the Planet's Data Gap with Drew Purves
Further reading:Natural forests of the world: paper, data and benchmarksForest loss drivers: paper, summary from WRI, and blog from GFWForest loss drivers code: Google Earth Engine; at WRI; at GFW; or Zenodo. Deep learning based remote sensing (open source): Jeo, GeeFlowSpecies m ... Show More
40m 21s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2024
Why You Should Ditch AI // AI Robot Learn Surgery
### Podcast Show Notes: Exploring AI, Productivity, and Autonomous Agents   #### Episode Highlights: 1. **AI Learns to Perform Surgery: The Future of Robotic Healthcare**    - Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a surgical robot capable of learning complex proc ... Show More
14m 49s
May 25
251 - Eliezer Yudkowsky: Artificial Intelligence and the End of Humanity
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, computer scientist, and author who co-founded and leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He is best known for his work on the alignment problem—how and whether we can ensure that AI is aligned with human values to ... Show More
2h 51m
Dec 2024
The TED AI Show: How AI robots learn just like babies — but a million times faster w/ NVIDIA’s Rev Lebaredian
Computers have been outperforming humans for years on tasks like solving complex equations or analyzing data, but when it comes to the physical world, robots struggle to keep up. It can take years to train robots to function in the messy chaos of the “real world” — but thanks to ... Show More
53m 27s
Dec 2024
How AI robots learn just like babies — but a million times faster w/ NVIDIA’s Rev Lebaredian
Computers have been outperforming humans for years on tasks like solving complex equations or analyzing data, but when it comes to the physical world, robots struggle to keep up. It can take years to train robots to function in the messy chaos of the “real world” — but thanks to ... Show More
53m 27s
Mar 2023
Humans vs. Machines with Gary Marcus
From the producers of The World as You’ll Know It, a new series about the perils and promise of artificial intelligence with cognitive scientist, Gary Marcus. For all the progress in artificial intelligence over the last 70 years — computers can now beat people at chess and Go, d ... Show More
3m 33s
May 2017
Robots - More Human than Human?
Robots are becoming present in our lives, as companions, carers and as workers. Adam Rutherford explores our relationship with these machines. Have we made them to be merely more dextrous versions of us? Why do we want to make replicas of ourselves? Should we be worried that they ... Show More
26m 59s
May 8
Artificial Intelligence Ethicology (WILL A.I. CRASH OUT?) with Abeba Birhane
Who’s babysitting AI? Will it steal your job? What happens when you’re rude to a chatbot? Cognitive scientist, Trinity College professor and Artificial Intelligence Ethicologist Dr. Abeba Birhane lets me ask her not-smart questions about legislation around AI, auditing datasets, ... Show More
1h 15m
May 10
Star Trek AI Lessons. WhatsApp AI. AI in Medicine. Pet Communication.
The AI news for May 10th, 2025 Here are the details of the day's selected top stories: Analysis: What Star Trek Teaches About Dealing with Artificial Intelligence Source: https://www.heise.de/hintergrund/Analyse-Was-Star-Trek-ueber-den-Umgang-mit-kuenstlicher-Intelligenz-lehrt-10 ... Show More
4m 37s
Nov 2023
Azeem’s Picks: Creating AI Responsibly with Joanna Bryson
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on every business leader’s agenda. How do you ensure the AI systems you deploy are harmless and trustworthy? This month, Azeem picks some of his favorite conversations with leading AI safety experts to help you break through the noise. Today’s pick ... Show More
31m 40s