First reactions. Telephone interview, October 2024

“The best scientists paired with these kinds of tools will be able to do incredible things”

Demis Hassabis – just after he had received the call from Stockholm – reflects on building the right research environment and the interplay between AI and individual scientists.

Interview transcript

Demis Hassabis: Hello, Demis speaking.

Adam Smith: Hello, Demis. This is Adam Smith from the website of the Nobel Prize.

DH: Great, great to hear from you.

AS: Many, many congratulations.

DH: Thank you so much.

AS: You have had so many achievements and accolades, and you’re so young, but what does this prize mean to you?

DH: Well, it’s unbelievably special and, you know, it’s actually really surreal, to be honest. It hasn’t really sunk in, but it’s an incredible honour. You know, it’s the big one, really.

AS: What were your first thoughts on hearing that you’d been awarded the prize?

DH: I couldn’t really think at all, to be honest. My mind went blank. It was just so incredible. It’s just an unbelievable experience.

AS: I imagine a party’s about to break out at Google DeepMind.

DH: I guess so, yes. I haven’t really even thought about that, I suppose, but I had a whole day of normal work ahead of me, but I guess all those plans will have to change now.

AS: I’m afraid so. But, or rather, I’m pleased to say so. But, AlphaFold, AlphaFold2, now AlphaFold3, ushers in a whole new world in science. How do you see the relationship between these tools and the individual scientist?

DH: The reason I’ve worked on AI my whole life is that I’m passionate about science and finding out knowledge, and I’ve always thought if we could build AI in the right way, it could be the ultimate tool to help scientists, help us explore the universe around us. I hope AlphaFold is a first example of that.

AS: But in terms of how, where this leaves the individual, if you like, because the power is so extraordinary and just mind blowing. But there are still individual scientists asking individual questions. So what’s the interplay like?

DH: I think that, at least for the next foreseeable future, I feel like this allows individual scientists to do so much more. Because, these systems, they’re tools. They’re very good for analyzing data and finding patterns and structure in data. But, you know, they can’t, figure out what the right question is to ask, or the right hypothesis, or the right conjecture. All of that’s got to come from the human scientist. I think the best scientists paired with these kinds of tools will be able to do incredible things, perhaps even in smaller teams than they used to be able to, because, they can rely on the tools to do a lot of the legwork.

AS: Just tell me what it’s like, what the environment of Google DeepMind is like.

DH: We tried to design it from the very beginning as sort of the perfect environment really to do cutting edge research work, and bring together world experts in many different disciplines. Obviously, machine learning and AI of course, but also engineering, also physics, biology, and even things like philosophy. So kind of bring that all together and into an incredible melting pot, and provide them with the resources, compute resources and other things. Great things will come out of that. We’ve seen that in the past with places like Bell Labs, and I was inspired by the stories of the golden eras of those kinds of places. I wanted to try and create something like that myself.

AS: How beautiful recreating Bell Labs in Kings Cross. Lovely idea.

DH: Yes. Exactly.

AS: Last question. Does it matter at all that this is held privately, that this is Google DeepMind, this isn’t a university. Does that make a difference?

DH: I don’t think so. I feel like you can do great science anywhere as long as you’re approaching it in the right way with, and doing fundamental research. You know, a lot of these new sciences and new areas and new fields of study and discovery require a lot of resources. In our case, a lot of computers. And, you know, that costs a lot of money, so why not tap into private sector in order to fund those kinds of things. As long as you are true to the scientific method and approaching it with real scientific rigor and going after the big questions, which I feel we do it at Google Deep Mind.

AS: Thank you very much indeed. I shall leave you to get on with enjoying what should turn out to be quite an exciting day.

DH: Thank you. Thanks for taking the time.

AS: Okay. Thank you. Demis.

Did you find any typos in this text? We would appreciate your assistance in identifying any errors and to let us know. Thank you for taking the time to report the errors by sending us an e-mail.