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The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby
The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby
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The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence
by Sebastian Mallaby
"A landmark reckoning—based on unprecedented access—with one of the world’s most brilliant and driven tech visionaries."
🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | TECHNOLOGY & CAPITALISM | BIOGRAPHY
An authoritative account of the race for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the singular mind behind the company leading the charge.
Extended Synopsis
Even in an industry defined by "geniuses," Demis Hassabis stands apart. From a North London chess prodigy and teenage coding wizard to a Cambridge-educated neuroscientist, Hassabis’s life has been a singular pursuit: the realization of Artificial General Intelligence. The Infinity Machine provides a revelatory look at DeepMind, the company Hassabis built to unravel the mysteries of biology and physics through machine cognition.
Drawing from over thirty hours of exclusive interviews with Hassabis, as well as insights from critics like Mustafa Suleyman and rivals at OpenAI, Sebastian Mallaby delivers a profound reckoning with the field of AI. The book explores the high-stakes battle for talent and compute, the friction between Hassabis’s London-based vision and Silicon Valley’s culture, and the existential fears of pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton. This is the defining story of a quest to will a new form of cognition into existence—a machine that may eventually supplant human understanding of the universe.
About the Author
Sebastian Mallaby is a leading chronicler of innovation and financial history. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the author of acclaimed works such as The Power Law and More Money Than God, Mallaby is renowned for his ability to dissect the complex intersections of capital, technology, and individual brilliance.
Reader Targeting & Academic Utility
- Tech Historians & Economists: A primary source for understanding the institutional development of DeepMind and the economics of the AGI race.
- AI Practitioners & Ethicists: Offers critical perspectives on the "sweetness of discovery" versus the risks of uncontrolled superintelligence.
- Business Leaders: A case study in managing elite talent and navigating the geopolitical divide between European innovation and Silicon Valley capital.
Technical Specifications
| ISBN-13 | 9780593831847 |
| ISBN-10 | 0593831845 |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Penguin Group |
| Publication Date | June 9, 2026 |
| Subjects | Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning |
Accolades & Features
- Written by a leading authority on the intersection of innovation and capitalism.
- Features unprecedented access to the internal operations of DeepMind and the mindset of Demis Hassabis.
- "A definitive and revelatory account of the most important technological race of our time." — Bust Down Books Editorial Review
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