The emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is drawing ever closer, leaving policymakers with less time to prepare, said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The entrepreneur warned that the rapid pace of AI development could outstrip the ability of labor markets and social institutions to adapt.

According to Amodei, these transformations will take place within “a few years, not decades.” He reaffirmed his earlier prediction that AGI could arrive by 2026 or 2027.

“I don’t think it’s far away. It’s hard for me to imagine that it will take much longer,” Amodei said.

The main driver of accelerated AI progress, he noted, is self-improvement, where models increasingly automate their own development. At Anthropic, he said, AI is already taking on the traditional role of software engineers.

“I have developers who don’t write code. They let the neural network do it and then edit the results. In six months or a year, large language models may be doing most, or possibly all, of the work,” Amodei explained.

In his view, the primary constraints on progress are chip supply and training cycles.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis expressed a more cautious outlook.

“In some areas, we will see significant progress. In mathematics or programming, it’s easy to imagine AI systems being automated, because their outputs can be verified. But in natural sciences, it’s much harder. You can’t easily know whether a chemical compound or a physics prediction is correct,” Hassabis said.

He added that current large language models are still unable to generate genuinely original questions, theories, or hypotheses.

“That’s the highest level of scientific creativity, and it’s unclear whether we will achieve such systems,” he noted.

Hassabis estimates a 50% probability that AGI will emerge by 2030.

Conclusion:

The rapid approach of AGI could reshape economies, labor markets, and governance far sooner than expected. Policymakers and institutions now face a narrowing window to prepare for one of the most disruptive technological shifts in human history.