Demis Hassabis: Elon Musk's Obsession Amidst the Google Threat

A Central Figure in the Tech Rivalry

Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, has become a ubiquitous figure in the concerns of Elon Musk and other leaders at OpenAI. During the trial between Musk and Altman, although Hassabis was not directly involved, his influence remains undeniable. Hassabis founded DeepMind in 2010 and sold it to Google four years later for an estimated amount between $400 million and $650 million. Since then, he has led numerous major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research at Google, notably with the AlphaFold project. He is currently at the helm of Google Gemini, the team formerly known as Google Brain.

OpenAI's Fear of Google

From its inception, OpenAI was designed to counter Google. Elon Musk testified that he was inspired to found OpenAI after a conversation with Google’s Larry Page, during which Page seemed to downplay the risks of an artificial intelligence threatening humanity. Court documents and testimonies reveal how much Google and Hassabis have instilled fears within OpenAI. Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, stated that Musk spoke about Hassabis "many, many times" during the early years of OpenAI, describing him as "very consistent and fixated" on this person. At an AI-focused dinner, the first question Musk asked Brockman was: "Is Demis Hassabis evil?"

Musk's Growing Concerns

Musk has expressed his worries about the rapid advancements at DeepMind and the need for OpenAI to catch up. In a 2016 email, he wrote: "I feel like they are playing in the Super Bowl and we are in the Puppy Bowl. Unless we want to get beaten, we need to significantly up our game." In January 2016, Hassabis sent a message to Musk expressing his disagreement with the idea of open-sourcing artificial intelligence, calling it "very dangerous." A few months later, Brockman informed Musk that Google's "policy leaders" wanted to speak with him, fearing that OpenAI would build a public narrative suggesting it was wrong to have a closed artificial intelligence.

The Spiral of Concern

By 2018, Musk appeared to be caught in a spiral of concern regarding Google's influence in artificial intelligence. He wrote: "OpenAI is on a path to certain defeat compared to Google. It is clear that immediate and dramatic action is needed, otherwise everyone except Google will be doomed to irrelevance." Shivon Zilis, a board member of OpenAI at the time, even suggested a direct intervention to slow down Hassabis. She wrote to Musk: "There is a very low probability of a good future if someone doesn’t slow down Demis."

The Loss of Trust

In November of the same year, Musk expressed that he had completely "lost trust" in OpenAI's ability to compete with Hassabis and DeepMind, considering instead to do so through Tesla. He stated: "My assessment of the probability that OpenAI will be relevant compared to DeepMind/Google without a dramatic change in execution and resources is 0%." Three months later, in March 2019, the last mention of Hassabis in the trial documents comes from a mysterious message from Altman to Musk, with no further details.