AI Might Cure All Diseases in Just 10 Years, Says Google DeepMind CEO – Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas Supports Bold Claim

Artificial intelligence (AI) has always been hailed as a revolutionary force, but Google DeepMind’s CEO Demis Hassabis believes we may be on the brink of an extraordinary breakthrough in human health: curing all diseases within the next decade. His bold prediction, made in a recent interview, is now garnering unexpected support from the CEO of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas, who described Hassabis as a "genius" and called for more resources to make this vision a reality.

A Game-Changing Prediction in Medicine

Hassabis, a British scientist and one of the leading minds behind AI advancements, shared his vision during an appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes on April 20. He spoke candidly about the potential of AI to revolutionize medicine and drastically shorten the time it takes to develop life-saving drugs.

“So on average, it takes, you know, ten years and billions of dollars to design just one drug. We can maybe reduce that down from years to maybe months or maybe even weeks. Which sounds incredible today, but that's also what people used to think about protein structures,” Hassabis explained. “And it would revolutionize human health, and I think one day maybe we can cure all diseases with the help of AI.”

His remarks are nothing short of ambitious. The idea that AI could speed up the development of drugs so significantly could change the way we approach medical research. Instead of spending years on research and development, scientists might one day be able to produce new medicines in a fraction of the time.

Can AI Truly End All Disease?

When asked directly whether AI could bring about the end of all diseases, Hassabis responded with optimism, stating, “I think that's within reach. Maybe within the next decade or so, I don't see why not.”

This statement has sent waves through both the medical and tech communities, with many now wondering if AI could actually live up to the hype. While some are skeptical about the timeline, the possibilities are certainly intriguing. With AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data and perform tasks at a speed and scale far beyond human capacity, it’s not hard to imagine a future where diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries are eradicated.

A Rivals’ Support: Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas

Unsurprisingly, the prediction quickly sparked conversation across social media, and one prominent voice in AI, Aravind Srinivas, weighed in. The CEO of Perplexity AI, a competitor to Google, was quick to throw his support behind Hassabis' vision, writing on X (formerly Twitter), “Demis is a genius and he should be given all resources in the world to make this happen.”

For those unfamiliar with Perplexity AI, the company is known for its AI-powered search engine, which directly competes with Google’s offerings. The startup has also announced plans to launch a new agentic browser aimed at challenging the dominance of Google Chrome. Despite the competition, Srinivas was clear in his admiration for Hassabis and his groundbreaking work at DeepMind, showing that even rivals in the AI industry can rally behind such an extraordinary goal.

DeepMind’s Incredible AI Milestone

But Hassabis’ groundbreaking remarks didn’t end there. In a recent conversation with LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, Hassabis shared another jaw-dropping achievement of his AI models. “So we did a billion years of PhD time in one year,” he said, referencing the immense power of his AI system to accelerate research. “That used to take a PhD student, their entire PhD, as a rule of thumb, to discover one protein structure. So, four or five years, and there’s two hundred million proteins known to science, and we folded them all in one year.”

Hassabis went on to explain that understanding the structure of proteins is key to understanding diseases and designing drugs. "If we know the function, then we can understand what goes wrong in disease. And we can design drugs and molecules that will bind to the right part of the surface of the protein, if you know this structure,” he said. This statement highlights the power of AI to transform the way we approach drug discovery and disease prevention, speeding up the process dramatically.

The Path to Curing Disease with AI

The idea that AI could one day cure all diseases may sound like science fiction, but considering the rapid progress in AI and machine learning, it’s a concept that’s quickly moving from the realm of possibility to probability. The ability to map proteins, simulate drug interactions, and predict the effects of new treatments could not only save years of research but also countless lives.

With the support of visionary leaders like Hassabis and Srinivas, the path to AI-driven medical breakthroughs seems more tangible than ever. And as the field of artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it’s clear that the technology will play a crucial role in reshaping the future of healthcare—perhaps even curing diseases once thought to be incurable.

The next decade could hold monumental changes in medical science, and if Demis Hassabis’ predictions hold true, we might witness the dawn of a new era in human health—one that could change the world forever.