The Rothschild Foundation is pleased to announce that Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, a neuroscience-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) company, will deliver the first annual Rothschild Foundation Lecture at the Royal Academy of Arts on 17th September 2018.

Hassabis will draw on his eclectic experience as an AI researcher, neuroscientist and videogame designer to discuss the implications of cutting-edge AI research for creativity and scientific discovery. He will also share some of DeepMind’s recent breakthroughs and the unique research and management culture that he has pioneered at the company. The talk will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the Royal Academy’s Artistic Director, Tim Marlow.

Demis Hassabis © DeepMind

DeepMind is the world leader in AI research and develops programs to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Since its founding in London in 2010, DeepMind has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers, five of them in the scientific journal Nature – an unprecedented achievement for a computer science lab. In 2014, DeepMind was acquired by Google in their largest ever European acquisition, and is now part of Alphabet. The talk will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the RA’s Artistic Director, Tim Marlow.

Demis Hassabis is a former child chess prodigy who, following graduation from Cambridge University, founded the pioneering video games company Elixir Studios, producing award winning games for global publishers such Vivendi Universal. After a decade of experience leading successful technology start-ups, Hassabis returned to academia to complete a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at University College London, followed by postdocs at MIT and Harvard, before founding DeepMind. The journal Science listed his neuroscience research connecting memory with imagination as one of 2007’s top ten scientific breakthroughs.

Demis is also a five-time World Games Champion, recipient of the Royal Society’s Mullard Award, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Academy of Engineering, winning the Academy’s Silver Medal. In 2016, Demis received WIRED magazine’s Leadership in Innovation Award and in 2017 he was named in the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people. In 2018, Demis was awarded a CBE for services to science and technology, elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and also awarded an honorary doctorate by Imperial College London.

The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre at the Royal Academy © Benedict Johnson

The lecture will take place in the Royal Academy’s new Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, developed as part of the Royal Academy’s 250^th anniversary redevelopment which has united their two sites, another project proudly supported by the Rothschild Foundation.

Tickets will soon be released priced £20, £12 concessions. For more information, please see the Royal Academy website.