Hassabis

Hassabis, Demis (born 1976 in London) is a British artificial intelligence researcher, neuroscientist, and entrepreneur. He co-founded DeepMind Technologies in 2010 and serves as its chief executive officer. DeepMind, based in London, develops general-purpose AI systems and applies them to science, medicine, and industry. In 2014, Google acquired DeepMind for a reported sum around $500 million.

Hassabis pursued studies in computer science and neuroscience, ultimately earning a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. Before founding DeepMind, he worked as a game designer and software developer, founding a London-based studio and contributing to several video game projects. This background in both programming and neuroscience shaped his approach to building intelligent systems that combine learning, memory, and planning.

Under Hassabis's leadership, DeepMind released AlphaGo, the program that defeated Go world champion Lee Sedol in 2016, demonstrating advances in deep reinforcement learning and search. The company continued to develop more capable versions, including AlphaGo Master and AlphaZero. In biology, DeepMind's AlphaFold project achieved a breakthrough in predicting protein structures, accelerating research in biomedicine.

Hassabis is commonly cited as a leading figure in contemporary AI research. His work spans algorithmic development, neuroscience-inspired AI, and the translation of fundamental research into applied systems.