Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis gets UK knighthood for ‘services to artificial intelligence’

Demis Hassabis, CEO and one among three founders of Google’s synthetic intelligence (AI) subsidiary DeepMind, has been awarded a knighthood within the U.Okay. for “companies to synthetic intelligence.”

Ian Hogarth, chair of the U.Okay. authorities’s lately launched AI Security Institute and beforehand founding father of music startup Songkick, was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for companies to AI; as was Matt Clifford, AI adviser to the U.Okay. authorities and co-founder of super-early-stage investor Entrepreneur First.

Prodigy

Hassabis was born in London in 1976, rising as a prodigy in numerous disciplines, and reaching grasp standing at chess by the point he was an adolescent. He subsequently turned lead programmer at fabled U.Okay. online game developer Bullfrog Productions; graduated from the College of Cambridge with first-class honors in Pc Science; and labored in numerous AI and laptop science roles earlier than gaining a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from College Faculty London (UCL).

Alongside Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, who Microsoft employed from AI startup Inflection AI final week, Hassabis based DeepMind out of London in 2010.

Hassabis was awarded a CBE in 2017 for “companies to science and expertise” within the wake of some high-profile achievements at DeepMind — this included growing an AI system that beat the world champion of technique board sport Go. Nonetheless, the corporate additionally courted controversy after signing data-sharing offers with the U.Okay.’s Nationwide Well being Service (NHS). Quick-forward seven years, and it’s telling that his knighthood was awarded particularly for companies to “synthetic intelligence,” a area that has catapulted into the mainstream consciousness over the previous 18 months attributable to applied sciences similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The U.Okay. has been desperate to place itself on the forefront of the AI revolution, pushed by initiatives such because the AI Security Summit which it hosted in England final November. And it sits among the many top-tier AI international locations globally when it comes to R&D funding, behind the U.S. and China, with DeepMind serving as one of many U.Okay.’s best AI exports. After snapping up DeepMind in 2014 for north of $500 million, it has emerged as one among Google’s most important belongings, as the main expertise firms battle it out for AI dominance — alongside Google Analysis, DeepMind is liable for Gemini, Google’s rival to OpenAI’s GPT-branded household of enormous language fashions.

So it does make sense that the U.Okay. would search to honor one among its most high-profile AI figureheads. Different notable figures from the expertise world to obtain knighthoods embody Apple’s Jonathan “Jony” Ive again in 2011 for “companies to design and enterprise.”

In centuries passed by, knighthoods have been usually reserved for navy achievements, however immediately they’re normally awarded for companies and achievements of nationwide significance — that may very well be contributions to science, sport, leisure and expertise. A knighthood is normally proposed by the prime minister, authorities division, members of Parliament and even members of the general public, with the top of state — i.e. the king or queen at that given time — technically making the ultimate choice on who receives them.

The recipient doesn’t get any significant privileges off the again of their knighthood, however they get the cultural and social kudos related to being allowed to prefix their identify with “Sir.”