Demis Hassabis

How did his brain formulate moves?

Why did it make mistakes?

And what was behind this phenomenon called thinking?

The author of the book attacked these questions as a physicist, insisting that human intelligence and computer intelligence are virtually indistinguishable.

And so he's around 16 years old at the time.

He was living away from his parents, surrounded by rebels who love to dream about AI under the watch of a mentor who encouraged these passions.

We were discussing AI all the time, Demas recalled.

How could it help the games?

What would it take to build it?

At the same time, Demas was inhaling science fiction.

He was reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and Ian Banks' Culture series.

and this is how all these experiences came together.

Demis' experience at Bullfrog answered his big question.

His mission and purpose would be to build artificial intelligence.

Molyneux and the book that he gave him had planted the idea that computers would soon do whatever the brain could do.

Ian Banks gave him this applied utopian vision of what AI's realization could mean, boundless human flourishing.

I decided then that I was going to dedicate my career to working on AI, Demis recalled.

I had already had the kernel of the idea for what eventually became DeepMind.

And so this will give you an indication of just how special Demis was.

He quits Bullfrog because he wants to attend Cambridge.