DeepMind: The Podcast

An inside look

Portrait of Hannah Fry, Presenter of DeepMind: The Podcast

"In Season 2, I've gone back inside the lab... and, I must say, I've seen some pretty extraordinary things."

Hannah Fry

Mathematician and Podcast presenter

What is artificial intelligence? Is it safe? And what’s it used for?

We’re often asked these questions at talks, science festivals, and in conversation with family and friends. So we partnered with the brilliant mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry to create DeepMind: The Podcast, which explores the latest in AI and uncovers the extraordinary ways it’s transforming our world.

In the second season - coming soon - Hannah discovers how AI is accelerating science, takes an in-depth look at the challenges and potential of building advanced problem-solving systems known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), and explores what it takes to ensure AI is built to benefit society.

Listen now on your favourite podcast app by searching “DeepMind: The Podcast”.

Google Podcasts

Artwork for Episode 1: 3D protein structures predicted by AlphaFold

A breakthrough unfolds

Discover how DeepMind unlocked the mysteries of protein folding with AlphaFold, solving a 50-year-old grand challenge in biology that could help transform healthcare and medicine.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 2: Conversation speech bubbles representing Large Language Models

Speaking of intelligence

Learn about the path to building AGI, why language is such an important part of intelligence, and about the challenges and potential of large language models.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 3: Representations of agents approaching a flag in a game of Capture the Flag

Better together

Explore why cooperation and altruism between AI and humans, as well as between AIs, is so important to building intelligent systems.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 4: Visualisation of a robotic arm picking up a wooden block

Let's get physical

Step inside the robotics lab to find out if having a body is an important part of intelligence, why it’s so hard to train a robot, and why some robotics demonstrations are faking it.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 5: Popular iconography of games including a space invader, chess piece and play button

The road to AGI

Hear from Shane Legg, the man who coined the phrase AGI and co-founded DeepMind, discussing why he thinks AGI is possible and when.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 6: Visualisation of a DNA helix and gordian loop

AI for science

Find out how AI is being applied to major scientific challenges in maths, nuclear fusion, and genomics, and even helping conserve wildlife in the Serengeti.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 7: Representation of real-world applications of AI including sports analytics and weather prediction

Me, myself, and AI

Take a closer look at how DeepMind is using AI to make an impact on the world, ranging from near-term weather forecasting to creating synthetic voices and developing game strategies for football.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 8: Iconography depicting society and fairness

Fair for all

Why diversity and representation is vital for AI and the questions researchers are grappling with to ensure that AI works for everyone.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 9: Representation of areas where AI could impact society.

The promise of AI

DeepMind’s CEO, Demis Hassabis, explains why he believes AGI is possible, the steps needed to build it, and the world-changing problems he hopes it will solve.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 1: Portrait of Jess Hamrick

AI and neuroscience: The virtuous circle

What can the human brain teach us about AI? And what can AI teach us about our own intelligence? These questions underpin a lot of AI research.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 2: Portrait of David Silver

Go to Zero

Hear the story of AlphaGo, the first computer program to defeat a professional human player at the game of Go.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 3: Portrait of Oriol Vinyals

Life is like a game

Video games have become a favourite tool for AI researchers to test the abilities of their systems. In this episode, Hannah sits down to play StarCraft II.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 4: Portrait of Raia Hadsell

AI, Robot

Forget what sci-fi has told you about superintelligent robots that are uncannily human-like; the reality is more prosaic.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 5: Portrait of Sims Witherspoon

Out of the lab

How AI could be used to save the sight of thousands, help us solve one of the most fundamental problems in biology and combat climate change.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 6: Portrait of Lila Ibrahim

AI for everyone

Hannah explores some of the concerns about the way AI might be implemented, used and abused.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 7: Portrait of Koray Kavukcuoglu

Towards the future

AI researchers around the world are trying to create a general purpose learning system that can learn to solve problems without being taught how.

Listen on YouTube

Artwork for Episode 8: Portrait of Demis Hassabis

Demis Hassabis - The interview

In this special extended episode, Hannah meets the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind for a personal take on the future of AI.

Listen on YouTube

“I hope this series gives people a better understanding of artificial intelligence and a feeling for just how exhilarating an endeavour it is.”

Demis Hassabis

Co-founder and CEO, DeepMind

About Hannah Fry

Professor Hannah Fry is an award-winning science presenter, public speaker, bestselling author, and academic known for her joyful ability to bring maths to life for audiences of all interests and abilities. Hannah is a regular host of BBC programmes and podcasts and is a Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL.

Portrait of Hannah Fry, DeepMind: The Podcast presenter

Credits

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has asked us questions and inspired us to make this podcast; and to our talented presenter, amazing contributors and creative producers who helped craft our initial idea into the final programmes. We really enjoyed making this podcast and hope you enjoy listening too!

Season two

Presenter

Hannah Fry

Series Producer

Dan Hardoon

Production support

Jill Achineku

Sounds design

Emma Barnaby

Music composition

Eleni Shaw

Sound Engineer

Nigel Appleton

Editor

David Prest

Season one

Presenter

Hannah Fry

Editor

David Prest

Series Producer

Louisa Field

Producers

Amy Racs, Dan Hardoon

Binaural sound

Lucinda Mason-Brown

Music composition

Eleni Shaw (with help from Sander Dieleman and WaveNet)