The head of Google’s DeepMind says artificial intelligence could usher in an era of ‘incredible productivity’ and ‘radical abundance’. But who will it benefit? And why does he wish the tech giants had moved more slowly?
If you have a mental image of a Nobel prizewinner, Demis Hassabis probably doesn’t fit it. Relatively young (he’s 49), mixed race (his father is Greek-Cypriot, his mother Chinese-Singaporean), state-educated, he didn’t exactly look out of place receiving his medal from the king of Sweden in December, amid a sea of grey-haired men, but it was “very surreal”, he admits. “I’m really bad at enjoying the moment. I’ve won prizes in the past, and I’m always thinking , ‘What’s the next thing?’ But this one was really special. It’s something you dream about as a kid.”
Well, maybe not you, but certainly him. Hassabis was marked out as exceptional from a young age – he was a chess prodigy when he was four. Today, arguably, he’s one of the most important people in the world. As head of Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s artificial intelligence arm, he’s driving, if not necessarily steering, what promises to be the most significant technological revolution of our lifetimes.