The Man who Built God – Meet the Oppenheimer of artificial superintelligence

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The creation of Artificial General Intelligence could be the greatest gamble mankind has ever undertaken. And one of its unlikely prime movers is a working class north Londoner and chess prodigy, the son of immigrant parents, who founded the groundbreaking company DeepMind to create machine superintelligence – a goal which if achieved could transform or destroy our world. Unlike the Altmans and the Musks, Demis Hassabis has the decency to fear what he is creating. The story of this 21st Century Oppenheimer is told in The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence. Author Sebastian Mallaby talks to Emma Kennedy about Hassabis’s journey and where it could take us. • Buy The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Emma Kennedy. Produced by Sophie Clark. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:33.0	Hello and welcome back to the bunker, bringing you news without the nonsense every
1:41.9	weekday morning.
1:42.9	I'm Emma Kennedy.
1:47.0	In 1945, Robert Oppenheimer watched the Trinity Test and famously said, now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. It was a
1:53.7	moment of profound scientific triumph wrapped in a shroud of existential terror. But what if the next
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