You may have read about Sir Demis Hassabis being jointly awarded the Nobel Chemistry Prize this week, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the name rang a bell – because, in his earlier years, Hassabis worked in the realm of video games. After learning to code on a ZX Spectrum, Hassabis would join Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog Productions, where he would assist in the level design of the Amiga classic Syndicate. Aged just 17, he would then co-design Theme Park alongside Molyneux, a million-selling business simulation. He would return to the world of academia, later co-founding the AI startup DeepMind, which was purchased by Google for £400m in 2014. Hassabis, now aged 48, was knighted for services to AI earlier this year.

Source: The Guardian October 10, 2024 12:06 UTC