Google DeepMind CEO: “The Moment AI Starts Improving Itself EVERYTHING Changes”

What happens when the most important person in AI might also be the one thinking most seriously about how to keep it safe?In this conversation, Sebastian Mallaby, biographer of Demis Hassabis, explores what makes the DeepMind founder so unusual, how he thinks about intelligence, competition, science, and risk, and why his role at the centre of AI may matter more than most people realise.But this isn’t just a story about one remarkable founder.It’s about a deeper shift:🔹 What kind of person ends up building the systems that could reshape civilization?🔹 Could the same technology that solves science and medicine also create entirely new forms of danger?🔹 And if AI becomes too powerful to fully understand, who do we trust to guide it?At the centre of the discussion is a harder question:If AI is becoming the most important technology of our lifetime, how much depends on the character, judgment, and ambition of the people building it?Because the future of AI may not just be about intelligence, but about who gets to direct it.