The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 24 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Hassabis: Google and DeepMind developed 90% of modern AI breakthroughs
“I would say about 90% of the breakthroughs that underpin the modern AI industry were done either by Google Brain or Google Research or DeepMind, so one of our groups.”
Hulme: AGI hype correlates directly with founders' capital fundraising needs
“I think there is a Correlation between how aggressively people predict AGI is coming and how much capital they need to raise. So you've got Emodi from Anthropic, you've got Altman, OpenAI, Musk, XAI, all of these guys are saying that it's just around the corne…”
Hulme: Expecting AI researchers to build profitable businesses is ridiculous
“The idea that they can all go out and create highly profitable, fast moving businesses seems ridiculous.”
Hassabis: Founding DeepMind in London provided a structural advantage in talent recruitment
“And I felt that there was actually less competition here for that sort of talent. And we could even draw in the best talent from the top European universities. And that's what it was like in the early days of DeepMind. So I think it was a huge structural advan…”
Hassabis: DeepMind's 2010 prediction of a 20-year AGI timeline remains on track
“We used to do this extrapolation of compute and algorithmic progress, and basically we predicted around 20 years it would take from when we started out, and I think we're pretty much on track.”
Kanji: Europe is on par with the US in AI for the first time
“When you look at what's happening in AI, you got DeepMind down the road in London, you got Meta running its AI stuff in Paris, like we are for the first time ever in European history on par from the company creation or technology creation as the US in not a ni…”
Mensch: DeepMind's initial Gemini development was too slow before recovering
“Gemini was a bit too slow, and I think they recovered sufficiently well since.”
Mensch: A team of five is faster than fifty unless uncoupled
“A team of five is faster than a team of 50. Except if you organize the team of 50 to be 10 teams of five that are sufficiently uncoupled.”
Sunak: DeepMind, Anthropic, and OpenAI agreed to grant UK early model access
“We're working with the companies themselves, DeepMind, Anthropic and OpenAI. I'm pleased that they've said that they will give early or priority access to the models.”
LeCun: DeepMind, Meta FAIR, and Cohere are best positioned for AGI
“In my opinion, the outfits that are best positioned for this are Claire from on one side and the new DeepMind now, which is, you know, DeepMind plus Google brain. There are a lot of people there who are interested in that question, and I think they are probabl…”
O'Driscoll: AI labs pursue life sciences for purpose over market size
“So I think actually people's interest in doing life science is one third TAM expansion and two thirds, shit, I'm putting everyone at a job. The least I can do is keep them alive. I want to do good because I want to have meaning. It's the search for meaning and…”
Foody: US AI talent aggregation will continue driving major geopolitical advantage
“I think that it's going to be difficult to change because there's just so many strong network effects around talent, right? When we have the best talent, even I know so many Brilliant French researchers that go to work at OpenAI and dropping in DeepMind, right…”
Harry Stebbings: Smart founders can recruit better, cheaper AI talent in London
“I think when you dig beneath the surface, the smart ones are going, actually, I can get better people, Often for cheaper in London, where DeepMind is, where unbelievable AI talent is.”
Emad Mostaque: Google DeepMind's annual salary budget is $1.2 billion
“DeepMind's salary budget is 1.2 billion a year.”
Emad Mostaque: DeepMind's Annual Salary Budget Is $1.2 Billion
“DeepMind's salary budget is 1.2 billion a year.”
Mostak: DeepMind's annual salary budget is $1.2 billion
“DeepMind's salary budget is 1.2 billion a year.”
Mostaque: DeepMind spends $1.2 billion annually on salaries
“DeepMind's salary budget is 1.2 billion a year.”
Hassabis: European capital markets still lack growth-stage funding depth and ambition
“And I think that certainly was missing 10 years ago when I was doing fundraising for deep mind and I think it's still kind of missing today. Just that kind of level of ambition and the amount the capital markets can support.”
Google DeepMind's Gemini Flash models are extraordinary and underappreciated
“I definitely feel like a lot of the Gemini Flash models are also extraordinary and underappreciated on, on evals especially their small models I'm always amazed with. So if I had to choose, maybe not a company, but especially Sadov, Models. I think the DeepMin…”
Socher: DeepMind Has the World's Best Science Marketing
“Their science marketing is, is probably the best in the world, and so that paper never quite had its moment in the sun yet.”
Kant: DeepMind built the primary European AI talent pool in London
“The number one company we have to give credit to is DeepMind. DeepMind built an incredible talent base, and they built it out of London.”
Luan: OpenAI and DeepMind pivoted AI research strategy before competitors
“What OpenAI realized before basically everybody but DeepMind was that the next phase of AI after Transformer was not going to be about research paper writing. It was going to be about let's choose a major unsolved scientific problem and just try to solve it.”