If there were any doubts about whether the world’s leading AI companies agreed on the direction of AI, or how quickly it should get there, those doubts were dispelled at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026.
During the “The Day After AGI” session in Davos, Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, and Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, expressed starkly differing views on the timelines of AI, the geopolitical and social risks, and whether the AI race can be slowed down.
This is crucial, as Google DeepMind and Anthropic are developing two of the highest-performing AI models currently, Gemini and Claude, respectively.
Unlike WEF 2025, where much of the AI debate revolved around China’s DeepSeek and its surprisingly affordable large-scale language models, this year’s Davos has moved further afield.
The debate is no longer focused on who built the cheapest or fastest model, as it was last year over the development of the incredibly affordable model by the Chinese company DeepSeek. This year, discussions are focusing on a broader perspective: how the technology is expected to be implemented, its risks, and its impact on society.
A warning is clearly creeping in: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella noted that AI must “do something useful that changes outcomes for people, communities, countries, and industries” if it is to attract investment and build supporting infrastructure.
Google DeepMind and Anthropic remain confident in their approach.
Hassabis agrees that the next two years will be challenging, with AI companies and society facing several challenges , including geopolitical issues, but points to their work on AlphaFold and the science as crucial to trying to solve real-world problems, such as curing diseases and finding new energy sources.
“I believe the industry’s current efforts aren’t sufficiently balanced toward this type of activity. We should have many more examples of solutions like AlphaFold that clearly contribute to the good of the world,” Hassabis noted . “It’s the industry’s job, and our role as key players, to not just talk about it, but demonstrate it,” he added.
Demis spoke about the geopolitical landscape and the ” transboundary nature of technology,” calling for a global consensus that, in his view, will provide a positive impetus for minimum security standards and their implementation. “This is vitally important because it will have repercussions for all of humanity,” he emphasized.
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