Lila Ibrahim on the Future of AI
From personalised education to helping solve global challenges – Lila Ibrahim, COO of Google DeepMind, explains how AI can help improve our future.
What »magical,« unimagined ways do you see people using future generative AI products in their daily lives, work and creative pursuits?
Lila Ibrahim: What inspires me most is how AI can help personalise education. I’ve witnessed firsthand with my teenage daughters the positive impact of AI tools that explain challenging concepts using text, audio, video and graphics. Now imagine every teacher having an AI assistant and every student working with a personalised tutor that helps them to learn about a subject or master a new skill by adapting to their pace and style. I’m particularly passionate about our role in responsibly building that future.
What is Google’s core philosophy for designing AI products that empower users and enhance their experiences?
Lila Ibrahim: We believe AI systems should be capable and reliable tools designed to partner with people to solve real-world problems. A powerful example is WeatherNext, our family of AI models that produce state-of-the-art weather forecasts that can help meteorologists warn people of major storms up to 15 days in advance and explore impact paths. This offers communities critical time to prepare. WeatherNext embodies our approach to building AI that could empower people to make better, faster decisions.
What’s the next transformative frontier for generative AI that will directly impact how users create and achieve, and what product advancements excite you most?
Lila Ibrahim: We’re entering the »agentic era« where advanced AI systems move beyond being creative tools to become collaborative partners that can take action on behalf of – and with – people. These tools will soon handle complex but mundane tasks, like planning travel or grocery shopping, giving us back our most valuable resource: time to pursue more creative endeavours or to spend with our friends and families. This is why our work on Project Astra is so exciting — it represents our vision for a universal AI agent that empowers people in their daily lives.