Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, closed Google I/O 2026 on Tuesday with a statement that drew audible gasps from the audience. He told developers they were "standing in the foothills of the singularity"—a phrase typically reserved for podcasts and late-night X threads, not main-stage keynotes.
The following day, speaking to Axios at the developer conference, Hassabis doubled down on his remarks. He stated that this is the year the shift becomes tangible. With agentic systems currently shipping, he said, "we can start feeling it now."
Hassabis provided unusually personal evidence. He revealed that he has been using AI agents to build mini video games late at night—projects that would have taken many months of engineering work just a few years ago. This compressed timeline previously belonged only to thought experiments.
What Hassabis Actually Means When He Says 'Singularity'
The singularity, as originally framed by Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil, is the point where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence and begins improving itself in a runaway loop. Hassabis uses the term more narrowly. For him, it is roughly synonymous with the arrival of full AGI, which he estimates has a 50 percent likelihood by 2030—the same timeline he has been citing in interviews for months.
Hassabis is not predicting a machine takeover. He has described himself as a cautious optimist and stated that AI will be roughly 100 times more impactful than the Industrial Revolution, primarily through breakthroughs in science and healthcare.
Why Sundar Pichai Handed the I/O 2026 Closing Slot to Hassabis
The keynote setup itself was telling. Sundar Pichai typically delivers the closing remarks at I/O. This year, he gave the final stretch to Hassabis, right after the unveiling of Gemini for Science—a research platform aimed at accelerating drug discovery and eventually helping cure diseases.
The two-hour address also covered the Gemini 3.5 model family, an upgraded coding assistant, new advertising formats for AI Mode in Search, and a fresh timeline for Google's smart glasses revival. However, the closing remarks focused on framing the stakes. Hassabis called AGI the most profound technology ever invented and said DeepMind is now on the horizon of inventing it.
"We're in a moment of immense promise, but also enormous responsibility," he said.
This marks a sharp tonal pivot for Google, which has spent years describing AI in measured, product-shaped terms. On Tuesday, its top AI researcher adopted a different register entirely—one that asks the audience not just to use the products, but to think hard about what they are building toward.
