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Intelligence Squared

Demis Hassabis and Sebastian Mallaby on The Quest for Artificial General Intelligence (Part Two)

Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared

News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, Arts

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Demis Hassabis – CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind – is one of the world’s most visionary technologists. A child chess prodigy from North London, Hassabis was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using artificial intelligence to predict the complex structures of nearly all known proteins. His company DeepMind, now owned by Google, is at the forefront of the pursuit to build artificial general intelligence, and considered Google’s engine room of AI innovation.  Sebastian Mallaby – former FT contributing editor, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of numerous books – has, for the past 3 years, explored the moral questions at the heart of AI and AGI, through the story of Demis Hassabis. With extensive access to DeepMind and its key players, Mallaby has conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with Hassabis and his inner circle as well as detractors and rivals at other companies. No other journalist has had such a closeup view of the opportunities, hype and threats AI could pose for us all.  In April 2026 Hassabis and Mallaby came together for an intimate exploration of The Infinity Machine, Mallaby’s definitive account of Hassabis’ life and career. They discussed how he came to lead the world’s most ambitious AI lab, what the pursuit of AGI might cost as well as  what it might unlock, and what the story of Hassabis and DeepMind can tell us about humanity’s innate drive to develop new technologies. --- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet.

0:03.8

I'm producer Mia Serente.

0:06.0

In this episode, we'll return for part two of our recent live event,

0:09.3

with CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind and Nobel laureate, Demis Asabas,

0:13.6

and journalist and author of The Infinity Machine, Sebastian Malaby.

0:17.7

Hussarbus and Malabee joined us recently at Friend's House in London to discuss the rise of artificial intelligence and the pursuit of AGI.

0:24.6

They were in conversation with co-anchor of Opening Trade on Bloomberg TV, Tom McKenzie.

0:29.6

If you haven't heard part one, we recommend jumping back an episode to catch up.

0:32.6

But now let's return to the conversation, live Friends House in London. We're living in a moment where we're thinking about AI in warfare, whether it's in Ukraine or in Iran.

0:44.3

We're thinking about maybe some of us, anthropic and mythos and cybersecurity.

0:48.3

The clear positive is that guiding light that you've had throughout the life with scientific discovery, and specifically alpha-fold two, alpha-fold three, isomorphic labs?

0:57.5

Is that where, when we think about the risks, benefits, balance for AI and AGI, is it very clear

1:04.8

for you that's medical advances and biology that some of the clearest wins that we're going

1:09.5

to see?

1:09.7

So I spent my whole life working on AGI because I believe it's the ultimate tool for science

1:16.6

and broadly construed. So science and medicine.

1:19.6

I think the number one thing we can apply AI to is curing terrible diseases.

1:24.6

So number two on my list would be helping with the environment and finding

1:29.3

energy, sort of new renewable energy sources. And you can see that's what I care about, because that's

1:34.3

what I personally done with my time other than building the core technology, right? Things like

1:38.3

AlphaFold, isomorphic labs, and all of our, we've had a science group, an AI for science group for nearly 10 years now.

1:46.0

Some of our rivals are starting to set up science teams to use the AI, but we've had one for 10 years,

...

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