Thursday 16 April 2026
07:45
Sebastian Mallaby
The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence
Sebastian will discuss the moral problems at the heart of AI and AGI through the story of Demis Hassabis, the founder of Deep Mind. He will explore how AI built on the pursuit of scientific knowledge compares with Silicone Valley’s hype, hubris and opportunism, and his hope that The Infinity Machine will help change the public attitude to AI in Britain, particularly with regard to the NHS. Not only could AI help fix the expensive tangle of problems at its heart, the UK is missing an opportunity to lead the world in AI for medicine.
Sebastian is the author of The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption, More Money Than God and The Man Who Knew, which won the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. A former Financial Times contributing editor and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.
‘The Infinity Machine is an extraordinary portrait of our age—beautifully written, clear-eyed and engaged in the deepest ethical questions of our day’
Author, journalist, academic
Sebastian is the author of The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption, More Money Than God and The Man Who Knew, which won the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. A former Financial Times contributing editor and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations.