At the recent Google I/O Developer Conference, the programming capabilities of large models once again became the focus. Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, expressed strong opposition to the recent hype about "AI replacing programmers" in an interview.

Hassabis clearly pointed out that the notion of AI replacing jobs on a large scale, which many companies and executives are promoting, is actually a lack of imagination.

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Productivity Gains Are Not an Excuse for Layoffs

Hassabis was very willing to talk about Google's latest released Gemini 3.5 Flash model, which has the ability to perform complex agent coding and fix deep errors. However, he emphasized that the productivity leap brought by technological advancement should be used to try and accomplish more valuable tasks, not as an excuse for layoffs.

If engineers' productivity increases three to four times because of AI assistance, the correct logic should be to have the team do three to four times more work. He revealed that he has countless ideas in his mind, ranging from laboratory drug discovery to game design, which require the engineering manpower to be released to try out.

Replacing Employees Blindly Is a Major Mistake

In response to some well-known technology companies recently attributing layoffs to AI applications, Hassabis bluntly criticized these companies for making a huge mistake. He believes that the release of such information may even be mixed with fundraising or other purposes, rather than a rational understanding of technological development.