# My interview with Sebastian Mallaby, author of 'The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence'

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/faster-please-the-podcast-5630783/my-interview-with-sebastian-mallaby-author-of-the-infinity-machine-demis-hassabis-deepmind-and-the-quest-for-superintelligence
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/faster-please-the-podcast-5630783/my-interview-with-sebastian-mallaby-author-of-the-infinity-machine-demis-hassabis-deepmind-and-the-quest-for-superintelligence.md
Podcast: [Faster, Please! — The Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/faster-please-the-podcast-5630783)
Published: 2026-07-14T11:07:32+00:00
Episode link: https://fasterplease.substack.com/p/my-interview-with-sebastian-mallaby
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/206952590/511a4c7977f0e36c3d20127b7fc6e669.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2083

## Resource

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers in America and around the world: If my podcast guest today is correct, the emergence of generative artificial intelligence "heralds a transformation more profound than anything since Homo sapiens acquired the capacity for abstract thought." That's about as pure a distillation of the San Francisco Consensus view on the importance of this technology as it gets. Today on Faster, Please!—The Podcast , I am joined by Sebastian Mallaby , the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and a widely read columnist for The Washington Post . He is also the author of the new best-selling book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence . (Spoiler: It’s tremendous book about the man, the company, and the technological revolution. I really liked it.) We discuss The Infinity Machine and the life of Demis Hassabis , including how his original vision for artificial superintelligence compares with the propulsive race unfolding today. We also explore how that competitive acceleration has affected the focus on safety, what role government regulation should play, and why many people may still be underestimating how transformative AI will become. The Quest for “Success” (0:27) Inside the Mind of Hassabis (8:29) The Race for Monopoly (12:31) The Economics of AI Anxiety (17:05) Governing the AI Race (24:17) The Biggest Leap Since Abstract Thought (30:13) A lightly edited transcript of our conversation will appear in my Week in Review issue on Saturday. (Another option is using the Substack auto transcript function.) But here are some edited highlights from the chat: On where AI is heading… You look backwards; you see how fast the progress has been. To m…

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## Transcript

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