The Inside Story of the Greatest Deal Google Ever Made: Buying DeepMind - WSJ
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/deepmind-google-demis-hassabis-5bd6de54 Listen (2 min) By Sebastian Mallaby March 25, 2026 12:00 pm ET In an exclusive excerpt from his upcoming book, “The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence,” journalist Sebastian Mallaby illuminates an acquisition race that broke out in 2013 over DeepMind and artificial general intelligence. On a June weekend in 2013, actress Talulah Riley rented out a castle in Tarrytown, N.Y., to celebrate her husband Elon Musk’s birthday. “It was one of these fake American castles,” Demis Hassabis remembered. The men dressed up incongruously as samurai warriors, and Riley arranged for the sumo world champion to
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