The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence

by Sebastian Mallaby · 2026

Sebastian Mallaby’s meticulously researched portrait follows Demis Hassabis—from a prodigious chess‑playing child in North London to the founder of DeepMind, the AI powerhouse now at the heart of Google. Turning down a seven‑figure gaming job before he was eighteen, Hassabis pursued a double education in computer science and neuroscience, driven by a single, audacious vision: artificial general intelligence that could crack biology, physics and the world’s toughest problems. Drawing on more than thirty hours of interviews with Hassabis, his inner circle, rivals and critics, Mallaby reveals the relentless curiosity, ethical dilemmas, and high‑stakes battles that shape the quest for superintelligence. The book offers a vivid, human‑scale look at the man behind the machines, the culture of a company pushing the boundaries of what computers can understand, and the profound implications of a future where machines may augment—or even surpass—human insight.