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The Superhero of Artificial Intelligence
Article

The Superhero of Artificial Intelligence

Can This Genius Keep It in Check?

The Guardian, 2016

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Overview
  • Background

Recommendation

You may have heard of DeepMind for its history-making battle against champion player Lee Sedol at Go – a highly complex Chinese game of strategy and intuition. But do you know the man behind this technology? In this Guardian article, journalist Clemency Burton-Hill warmly introduces Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind. Hassabis comes across as superhuman but nice – a modest genius who ultimately wants his machines to serve humanity. He’s convincing; he even suspects he talked English physicist Stephen Hawking out of his reservations concerning artificial intelligence (AI) in just one meeting. So is there anything to worry about? Hassabis certainly doesn’t think so, but he seems happy to allay any fears by explaining how DeepMind works. getAbstract recommends this fascinating report to anyone who is excited or fearful about what AI means for the future of humankind.

Summary

Demis Hassabis’s employees describe him as a “visionary” manager. World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee once called him “one of the smartest human beings on the planet,” and in 2014 Google reportedly paid $625 million for his company. Hassabis is both a computer scientist and cognitive neuroscientist, and, despite crafting video games from the age of eight and being a chess master at age 13, Hassabis is humble, friendly and unassuming. He has a passionate sense of purpose and finds his work deeply exciting.

About the Author

Clemency Burton-Hill is an English actress, novelist, musician, radio presenter and journalist. She writes for The Guardian, Vogue and The Economist.