TechStuff How Google DeepMind Accidentally Started the AI Race - The Story
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Apr 1, 2026 
Sebastian Mallaby, journalist and author of The Infinity Machine, profiles Demis Hassabis and DeepMind. He traces Demis’s rise from chess prodigy to AI visionary. Topics include the Manhattan Project analogy for AI, DeepMind’s breakthrough projects like AlphaGo and AlphaFold, the sparks behind the AI race, safety and regulation debates, and what’s next for AGI and global oversight.
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London Pub Meetings That Revealed Demis's Mission
- Sebastian Mallaby recounts meeting Demis Hassabis regularly in a North London pub where Demis spoke openly about building AGI and its moral weight.
- Demis compared his mission to understanding science and philosophy, calling AI the path to both and framing it as a quasi-religious calling.
Good Intentions Can't Overcome Race Dynamics
- Mallaby argues skilled, sincere leaders can still produce dangerous outcomes when structural forces like race dynamics overpower individual intentions.
- He contrasts two screw-up types: incompetence versus intelligent actors who mismanage risks because larger competitive forces take control.
Chess Upbringing That Shaped Relentless Drive
- Mallaby describes Demis's childhood chess intensity: 'try your absolute, absolute, absolute best' meant pushing to physical collapse.
- Shane Legg framed Demis's determination as marathon-level exhaustion after every contest, illustrating relentless drive.
