Demis and Mustafa were extraordinary, amazing storytellers. They balanced each other incredibly well.” Hassabis was the serious brain who read scientific papers late into the night, who talked through methodologies for hours with his top researchers, and who also tended not to consort with lower-ranked staff who didn’t have PhDs. It was Hassabis who fashioned a deeply hierarchical culture at DeepMind that was largely based on academic repute. Suleyman was the charismatic visionary when it came to rendering a vision of the future that everyone was working toward. One former staffer says he was
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