In this special extended episode, Hannah Fry meets Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind. She digs into his former life as a chess player, games designer and neuroscientist and explores how his love of chess helped him to get start-up funding, what drives him and his vision, and why AI keeps him up at night.

If you have a question or feedback on the series, message us on Twitter (@DeepMind using the hashtag #DMpodcast) or email us at podcast@deepmind.com.

Further reading:

  • Wired: Inside DeepMind's epic mission to solve science's trickiest problem
  • Quanta magazine: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science
  • Demis Hassabis: A systems neuroscience approach to building AGI. Talk at the 2010 Singularity Summit
  • Demis Hassabis: The power of self-learning systems. Talk at MIT 2019
  • Demis Hassabis: Talk on Creativity and AI
  • Financial Times: The mind in the machine: Demis Hassabis on artificial intelligence (2017)
  • The Times: Interview with Demis Hassabis
  • The Economist Babbage podcast: DeepMind Games
  • Interview with Demis Hassabis from the book Game Changer, which also features an introduction from Demis

Interviewees: Deepmind CEO and co-founder, Demis Hassabis

Credits:
Presenter: Hannah Fry
Editor: David Prest
Senior Producer: Louisa Field
Producers: Amy Racs, Dan Hardoon
Binaural Sound: Lucinda Mason-Brown
Music composition: Eleni Shaw (with help from Sander Dieleman and WaveNet)
Commissioned by DeepMind