Demis Hassabis.
The quest for superintelligence.
Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, he is the author of six books, including More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite and The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, which have become investment classics. His latest book is The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence; the Financial Times wrote that “Mallaby has done full justice to his kaleidoscopically interesting subject.” He also co-hosts a weekly CFR podcast, The Spillover, which examines the ripple effects of global events across policy, geopolitics, economics, technology, and financial markets.
It’s rare that a book about computer science can be described as a “page turner,” but Mr. Mallaby’s latest book is exactly that. Demis Hassabis is (in)arguably one of the most important people on the planet, because he’s doing the most important work on the planet: the pursuit of artificial general intelligence.
I’ve done a fair number of podcasts over the years. I’ve never done one more interesting than this one.
(News Items Podcast interview with Sebastian Mallaby. Produced by Dale Eisinger. Recorded 19 May 2026)
You can find this podcast, and previous News Items podcasts, on most of the major platforms, including Apple, Amazon and Spotify.