Demis Hassabis on AGI Timelines, OpenRouter's $113M Funding, and AI Hiring Bias

Demis Hassabis on AGI Timelines, OpenRouter's $113M Funding, and AI Hiring Bias

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis shares AGI timelines, OpenRouter secures $113M in funding, and a Stanford study highlights racial bias in AI hiring tools.

Industry & Strategy

Demis Hassabis on AGI Timelines

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis stated in an exclusive interview that AGI is on track for 2030, plus or minus a year. While he expressed confidence in the trajectory, he noted that several gaps remain, specifically regarding world physics, memory, consistency, and continual learning. Hassabis also discussed the future of drug discovery, emphasizing that AI will likely focus on oncology and immunology first, with the ultimate goal of creating an engine capable of helping cure any disease.

Beyond technical milestones, Hassabis highlighted the importance of human qualities such as taste, original thinking, and emotional connection, which he believes will become more valuable as AI advances. He also noted that he intends to use AI to explore fundamental questions about the nature of reality and human existence once AGI is achieved.

Stanford Study Reveals Racial Bias in AI Hiring

A Stanford study analyzing 4 million job applications across 156 employers has identified clear racial disparities in AI-driven hiring tools. The research found that Black and Asian applicants were disproportionately screened out, with some individuals facing rejection across every company they applied to. The study noted that 10.62% of positions showed adverse impact against Black applicants and 5.32% against Asian applicants.

The findings suggest that bias can propagate through shared infrastructure, as 42 models were shared across multiple employers. While the study examined data from 2018 to 2022, it raises concerns about how bias can manifest in modern AI systems, potentially affecting companies that rely on third-party hiring tools without realizing the underlying disparities.

Business & Funding

OpenRouter Raises $113M

OpenRouter has raised $113 million in a funding round led by CapitalG. The platform, which provides developers with access to over 400 AI models through a single API, has experienced significant growth, reaching a weekly volume of 25 trillion tokens and 8 million users.

This funding reflects the broader trend of increasing demand for model routing and infrastructure that simplifies access to diverse AI models. The capital injection is expected to support the company's continued scaling as it manages high-volume traffic for its developer base.

Baseten in Talks for $1B Funding

Inference provider Baseten is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation. This potential round would more than double the company's valuation from just three months ago. Baseten specializes in software that helps developers run AI models—primarily open-source—more efficiently on rented cloud GPUs from providers like AWS and Google.

The rapid valuation increase underscores the intense investor interest in the inference layer of the AI stack, as companies seek cost-effective ways to deploy and scale their AI applications.

Figure AI Signs Retail Supply Chain Deal

Figure AI has secured its first large-scale retail supply chain contract, deploying its Figure 03 humanoid robots at a distribution center in Reno, Nevada, operated by JCPenney's parent company. This deployment marks a significant step for the company as it moves from development to practical, industrial-scale application in logistics.

Hardware & Global Tech

Qualcomm Strikes AI Chip Deal with ByteDance

Qualcomm has entered into an agreement to supply millions of AI chips to ByteDance for use in its data centers. This deal highlights the ongoing demand for specialized hardware to support the massive computational requirements of AI models, particularly for large-scale tech companies.

China Expands Travel Curbs on AI Talent

China has expanded overseas travel restrictions for top AI researchers at private firms, including Alibaba and DeepSeek. These measures are part of a broader effort to retain domestic talent and maintain a competitive edge in the global AI race, as the country seeks to accelerate its own development capabilities.

Tools & Releases

ElevenLabs Releases Music v2

ElevenLabs has launched Music v2, an upgrade to its music-generation model. The new version features improved vocals, instrumentation, and multilingual support, along with track-level inpainting capabilities, allowing for more precise control over the generated audio.

PrismML Launches Bonsai Image 4B

PrismML has released Bonsai Image 4B, a diffusion model designed for local execution on mobile devices and laptops. The model is 6-8x smaller and up to 5.6x faster than previous iterations, with 1-bit and ternary versions available. It aims to make high-quality image generation accessible on consumer hardware without relying on cloud processing.