The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence
Penguin Press, March 2026; listed on CFR books page
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Sebastian Mallaby has written well-regarded books on Alan Greenspan, on hedge funds and on venture capital, and this is his account of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis and the development of artificial intelligence toward general capability.
The reference has not verified this book's contents. Its subject and author are established by the title and by Mallaby's publication record; the underlying story it covers includes Hassabis's background in chess and games research, the founding of DeepMind in 2010, its acquisition by Google in 2014, the AlphaGo and AlphaZero results, the AlphaFold protein structure work, and the company's position within Google and its relationship to the wider competitive race.
Readers should go to the book itself for its argument. This entry establishes only the subject and does not describe findings the reference has confirmed.
Key takeaways 6
- Mallaby's previous books on Greenspan, hedge funds and venture capital established a method of institutional history built on extensive access.
- DeepMind was founded in 2010, acquired by Google in 2014, and produced the AlphaGo, AlphaZero and AlphaFold results.
- Hassabis's background combined games, cognitive neuroscience and computing, which shaped the laboratory's research approach.
- The acquisition placed a research laboratory with stated safety commitments inside a commercial technology company.
- AlphaFold's protein structure predictions demonstrated that these methods produce results scientists in another field could use directly.
- The reference has not verified the book's specific claims and this entry describes the subject rather than the argument.
Who should read it
Readers following the institutional history of artificial intelligence, with the caveat that this entry is not a verified reading of the book.
About Sebastian Mallaby
Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations; former Washington Post columnist and Economist correspondent
More Money Than God and The Power Law are the standard narrative histories of hedge funds and venture capital, cited far outside journalism.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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