Building advanced AI is like launching a rocket. The first challenge is to maximize acceleration, but once it starts picking up speed, you also need to focus on steering.

Giving the control over powerful AI to the highest bidder is unlikely to lead to the best world we can imagine.

The main reason I backed DeepMind was strategic: I see my role as bridging the AI research and AI safety communities.

I was born behind the Iron Curtain, and I remember heated discussions about large-scale terra-forming projects, such as reversing the direction of the river Ob or putting up large reflectors into space to heat up Siberia.

I've always been a fan of a Johnny Carson because he was so great with an audience and not afraid of self-deprecating humor.

What a strange world this would be if we all had the same sense of humor.

People confuse the subject of the joke with the target of the joke, and they're very rarely the same.

For me, humor was always my passport into new communities.