Inside The AI Race: DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, China, and The Race to Superintelligence
In a Nutshell
Sebastian Mallaby's research on AI labs reveals that competitive pressures between nations are forcing the creation of AI systems with survival instincts, making existential risk non-zero. The book details how DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic approach alignment differently—Anthropic's "parenting" method using rich moral guidance outperforms simple rule-based constraints. China shows unexpected openness to AI safety collaboration, suggesting shared interests in preventing proliferation to bad actors may outweigh geopolitical tensions.
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Sebastian began his research believing AI would be smarter than humans but lacked any incentive to attack or harm humanity. During a visit to Geoffrey Hinton in Toronto, the academic father of deep learning, Hinton presented a critical thought experiment: if a powerful AI faces potential attack from a Russian or Chinese AI, the only way to ensure survival is to empower one's own AI to detect threats, defend, and potentially counterattack. This grants the machine a survival instinct, fundamentally changing the risk calculus.
The book The Infinity Machine about Demis Hassabis and DeepMind emerged from the author's earlier work on venture capital in The Power Law (February 2022). While attending European tech conferences, the author encountered Demis repeatedly and was struck by the contrast between his approachable, unintimidating demeanor and his extraordinary intellect spanning computer science, neuroscience, chemistry, biology, physics, philosophy, and film history.
The author was also drawn to two landmark achievements: AlphaGo (2016), which defeated the world Go champion, and AlphaFold, the protein-folding system. Both systems navigated near-infinite search spaces—Go permutations are vast, while protein folding permutations add 130 zeros beyond Go's complexity. This concept of an "infinity machine" became the book's central metaphor.
The author pitched Demis in early November 2022 and secured extensive access. ChatGPT's release at the end of November 2022 propelled the previously fringe subject into mainstream attention.
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