Demis Hassabis stares intently through the screen when I ask him whether he can save Google. It’s early evening in his native U.K. and the DeepMind founder is working overtime. His Google-owned AI research house now leads the company’s entire AI research effort, after ingesting Google Brain last summer, and the task ahead is immense.
Google’s core business is thriving, but that almost seems beside the point. Hassabis and I are speaking on Google Meet, in an interview arranged via Gmail, scheduled on Google Calendar, and researched via Google Search. Largely thanks to these core products, Google posted $307 billion in revenue last year, growing 13% in the fourth quarter, and is trading near its all-time high.
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