An excerpt from Sebastian Mallaby’s upcoming book, “The Infinity Machine,” reveals new details about Google’s 2014 acquisition of the AI lab DeepMind. According to the book, DeepMind co-founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman entertained a rival, and potentially more lucrative, offer from Facebook before ultimately selling to Google for a reported $650 million.
The decision to side with Google was reportedly driven by concerns over AI safety and governance. During negotiations, Facebook's team was said to have brushed aside the founders' desire for an independent AI safety oversight board. In contrast, Google's leadership, including then-CFO Patrick Pichette, engaged seriously with the concept. Hassabis was also more convinced by Google co-founder Larry Page’s genuine focus on the mission of artificial general intelligence, whereas Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared equally enthused about various other technologies.