Sir Demis Hassabis on The Future of Knowledge | Institute for Advanced Study

On May 2, 2025, Sir Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Nobel laureate, joined IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg for a conversation on the ways in which artificial intelligence is transforming our capacities for discovery and reshaping the nature of knowledge. Their dialogue examined Hassabis's journey from chess prodigy to artificial intelligence pioneer, showing how, like John von Neumann, Professor (1933–55) in the School of Mathematics and architect of the IAS machine (one of the world's first stored program computers), Hassabis placed gaming at the center of his thinking about thinking. Hassabis and Nirenberg also discussed breakthrough artificial intelligence projects including AlphaFold's protein structure predictions, as well as emerging work with AlphaProof in mathematics. The conversation further delved into Hassabis’s interest in the P versus NP problem, as well as addressing the critical steps our societies should take as world-changing technology develops—echoing sentiments once expressed by the Institute's Director (1947–66) J. Robert Oppenheimer. Wolfensohn Hall, Institute for Advanced Study, 1 Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ May 2, 2025