# AI is smarter than you think with Shane Legg of Google DeepMind

- Show: [How I Built This](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this)
- Published: 2024-04-11
- Length: 37m
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind

## Summary

Shane Legg, co-founder and Chief AGI Scientist at Google DeepMind, discusses the company's mission to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) and its evolution from a startup to a core part of Google. He details DeepMind's technical breakthroughs, including AlphaGo, which combined Monte Carlo Tree Search with deep learning to master the game of Go, and AlphaFold, which solved the protein folding problem to accelerate drug discovery. Legg explains how the merger of DeepMind with Google's AI division was driven by the need to scale large language models and compete with rivals like OpenAI, while emphasizing the critical importance of AGI safety research and global policy engagement to mitigate existential risks.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=0) Introduction: Shane Legg and Google DeepMind
- [3:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=185) Legg's Early Life and the Origins of Machine Learning
- [7:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=425) Founding DeepMind and the Goal of AGI
- [11:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=660) AlphaGo: Combining Search and Deep Learning
- [15:34](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=934) Solving Protein Folding with AlphaFold
- [19:30](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=1170) The Rise of Large Language Models and the Google-DeepMind Merger
- [22:50](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=1370) AGI Safety, Extinction Risk, and Societal Preparation
- [28:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=1724) The Physical Limits and Potential of Machine Intelligence
- [33:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2024-04-11-ai-is-smarter-than-you-think-with-shane-legg-of-google-deepmind#t=1996) Policy, Governance, and Individual Leverage

## Topics

- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Chips, FPGAs & semiconductors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/chips-and-fpgas)
- [Policy, trade & tariffs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/policy-trade-and-tariffs)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises

## Mentioned

- Google DeepMind (company)
- AlphaGo (product)
- AlphaFold (product)
- OpenAI (company)
- Transformer (other)

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