“I think we're going to have AGI before we have a virtual cell.”
Google DeepMind: The Podcast · AI Research & Frontier Labs · November 2026
Context
Hannah Fry asked how many years it might take to reach a virtual cell, a model that can simulate how a cell responds to genetic changes or drugs. The AlphaGenome researcher's answer is a striking measure of how hard biology still is, even compared with general AI.
Transcript
that was going to be my next question. Many, many.
It could be many years, but
I think we're going to have AGI before we have a virtual cell. Right.
That's my prediction. I think you're probably right. Intelligence is less hard than biology. It seems like, yeah. Amazing. Thank you both so much. That was so interesting. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Yeah. I really liked what they said about biology being humbling because it's hard. The goal…