Google AI CEO Demis Hassabi has revealed why he chose to stay in London instead of moving to Silicon Valley after Google acquired DeepMind in 2014. Speaking at an event in London hosted by Intelligence Squared, Hassabis said that he chose to stay because wanted to prove that world-class AI work could happen outside the US. “There’s a bit of an underdog in me,” Demis Hassabis said adding “I wanted to show that I’m passionate about the U.K. and that London and the U.K. could do this. But the main thing was: I knew there was the talent here”. Continuing further, he said “I knew we would have the field to ourselves for about four or five years, the formative years of DeepMind, and we had this incredible talent that was being overlooked in the U.S.”“And with the success of DeepMind and a few other companies here, it’s shown that deep tech can be viable outside of Silicon Valley. Of course, the U.S. giants have realized this, both the VCs and the big tech companies, and they’ve invested now—many of them have their European head offices here in the U.K. and in London,” he added.
Demis Hassabis on issue of AGI safety
Stressing on the issue of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) safety, Hassabis said “At the back of my mind, I’ve got this gnawing feeling that there’s something much more important, much bigger than the commercial race, which is getting AGI safely over the line for humanity and to make sure that the benefits fully outweigh the risks.”“And, you know, I’m going to try. We’re only one actor in this now; there’s five or six [other] leaders, and there’s China as well, and the Chinese labs. And so I think in the next few years, the story is still to be written on how this is going to go,” Hassabis continued adding”“There needs to be more cooperation and coordination at an international level, ideally—although that’s very hard with geopolitics as it is today—around safety topics and debates around the benefits versus the risks.”
Google AI CEO Demis Hassabis ’s 10 pm to 4 am shift to execute “side projects”
During the discussion, Demis Hassabis also revealed that he has two workdays—daytime hours that most of us do, and a 10 pm to 4 am shift to execute “side projects” and other smart ideas. He said:“Using all my chess training [Hassabis was a recognized master-level chess player by the age of 13], that’s the way I think about life. In a very considered way, planning back from your goal, breaking that down into sub-goals. I think it’s generally applicable to life, or at least that’s what I’ve tried to do, and it’s been pretty effective.”
