One of the world’s most influential voices in artificial intelligence, Demis Hassabis, has offered fresh career advice to young people in Cambridge and beyond: stick with STEM and get hands-on with AI.
Speaking at SXSW London this week, the Google DeepMind CEO and Nobel laureate said that despite AI transforming industries, a strong foundation in maths, physics, and computer science remains more important than ever.
“It’s still important to understand fundamentals,” said Hassabis, who grew up in North London and studied at Cambridge. “You need to grasp how these systems are put together.”
Hassabis predicted that AI will bring about a wave of new, high-value jobs in the next decade—especially for those who are technically literate and curious about using these tools creatively.
Comparing AI’s disruption to the Industrial Revolution, he said that while job displacement is real, human adaptability is the bigger story. “It’s those who know how to work with AI who will thrive,” he added.
Hassabis also urged today’s students to go beyond classroom learning and actively explore AI tools such as ChatGPT and coding assistants.
Experiment with the latest systems.. Find useful and novel ways to apply them.
He envisions a generation of “AI natives” much like those who grew up with the internet. This fluency, he said, will be essential in a world where firms like Meta, Microsoft, and Google are already using AI to automate coding and streamline workflows.
With Google’s own prediction that artificial general intelligence could arrive by 2030, Hassabis emphasised the urgency: “The future is coming fast. We need to prepare now.”
For Cambridge’s student population and local educators, his message is clear: STEM isn’t going out of style—it’s evolving with AI at the helm.
