Story Of The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Sam, I think today we should talk about somebody who is one of the most important founders in the world, one of the most brilliant founders in the world, that nobody talks about. I don't even know how to say this guy's name properly. And he is one of the most important tech founders in the world. His name is Demis Hassabis.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:27)
Is he currently the guy who is warning people? Is he on a podcast tour warning people?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:32)
No, no, no. He's pro-AI. So he's not warning people.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
No, then I don't know anything about him. Enlighten me.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:38)
Okay, so this guy is Demis the Menace is what I'm going to call this guy. Because this guy is an absolute animal. Okay, so I watched this documentary called The Thinking Game. It's on Prime Video if anybody wants to go watch it. I'd heard good things from some smart people, so I thought, okay, let me check it out. And let me just first lay out my case for Demis as Billy of the Week because he's kind of legendary. Okay, so I didn't understand how much of a prodigy this guy was. And this was a documentary that was pretty straightforward, but this could have easily been a movie like The Social Network because The Social Network basically covered the most transformative, young, brilliant founder from the 2004 to 2010 era, which is Zuck.
And it talks about Zuck in college and how he's this kid and all the ups and downs he goes through trying to build this thing. Demis is maybe that guy now, him and Sam Altman. They're both basically two guys who are creating the most important technology of all time.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:38)
You think those are the two guys? Those are the guys?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:40)
Well, Elon would be the other, right? So Elon's the obvious other person that needs a movie and has a crazy life. But this guy, I think, is the most underrated, less talked about for who he is. Okay, so who is he? He started this company called Deepmind. Deepmind got bought by Google. And Deepmind is basically Google's AI play. And the Deepmind team, which was basically a research team that was building AI, is the reason that OpenAI exists. It is the reason that ChatGPT exists. It is the reason Elon is interested in AI, was very much because Elon met with Demis. And basically, Demis big-dogged him a little bit. He was like, oh yeah, I'm working on the most important thing ever.
And Elon, who's building rockets and electric cars, he's like, I'm saving the planet. I'm going to space. That's my portfolio. And Demis said, well, what we're building will be the most important invention humans will ever make. It will be the last invention. It's artificial general intelligence. So a computer that can think and learn better than humans. And the reason why this is called the last invention is because once you invent an artificial general intelligence, it's basically like its own little species. So it's computers that can think and learn. They will then do the thinking and learning and inventing far faster pace than we will. So they'll invent all the new shit after that.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:54)
He has that conviction throughout the documentary.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:56)
And he's had it since he was a kid. Okay, so here's the cool stories. That's the very basic setup. But here's the story. So he grows up, he's got these hippie parents. His dad is a musician and they look very bohemian. He gets into chess. And by the age of six, he is one of the best chess players in the world.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:15)
Amongst all humans or six-year-olds?

**SPEAKER_1** (3:18)
Yeah, so first he wins the under eight championship when he's only six in Europe. Then, and he is at one point, he's ranked the second best chess player in the world for his age. So he's like elite, elite chess player as a young kid. And he uses his chest, he would go to the, his parents would basically drive him to these chess tournaments. He would win as this, and he looks tiny. Even now he looks like baby faced. He looked like such a little kid when he's sitting there at these tables. And he would basically go win prize money. And then he used the prize money to buy his first computer. Okay. So chess gets him a computer. When he gets a computer, he starts making games on the computer. He builds a chess game, builds up the little games. And he starts a hacking club with friends at school. And he's basically like, wow, computers and chess. Like, this is my life.