Google didn’t just buy a company—they dropped half a billion to buy the guy:
Demis Hassabis, a video game designer, ethics-quoting neuroscientist, and chess prodigy once hailed as the next Bobby Fischer.
I believe he’s just as important as Sam Altman in AI right now.
I rank “The Thinking Game” as #2 in “The Best AI Documentaries” (out of 15).
Trailer for “The Thinking Game”
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- AlphaGo’s Move 37 against Lee Sedol stunned the Go world. Experts first called it a mistake—then called it genius. “Beautiful,” said Sedol.
- AlphaZero learned chess in 4 hours—no human data. It then crushed Stockfish using bold queen sacrifices and unpredictable lines grandmasters had never seen.
- Ke Jie, the world #1 Go player, cried after being defeated 3–0 by AlphaGo. China literally cut the live feed when it became clear he was losing.
- Google bought DeepMind for $500 million. Elon Musk and Facebook (Meta) were also secretly bidding.
- Peter Thiel invested early—but only if Demis moved to Silicon Valley (Demis stayed in London). Musk also tried to buy it, despite already investing in it.
Watch “The Thinking Game”
You can watch “The Thinking Game” on Amazon Prime here.
Check JustWatch for the other streaming options.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 96/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.6
- Rotten Tomatoes: na
Director’s Note: Directed by Greg Kohs who also did the amazing “AlphaGo” (which I ranked 100/100).
Release Date: February 2, 2025 (theaters) and February 7, 2025 (Streaming)
My Review of “The Thinking Game”
The Setup
This documentary traces the story of DeepMind—the Alphabet-owned AI lab aiming to solve intelligence itself. Demis Hassabis (co-founder/CEO) was a chess prodigy, game designer, and neuroscientist who believed AI could help crack the hardest problems in science.
What started with video games like Pong and Breakout eventually led to AlphaGo shocking the Go world and AlphaFold solving a 50-year protein folding puzzle.
Along the way, the film introduces debates around AGI, AI safety, surveillance, and the unintended consequences of creating machines that can outthink us.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Demis insists that DeepMind’s tech never be used for surveillance or autonomous weapons—he got Google to sign a clause banning it.
- The film shows AlphaFold at CASP14—where its predictions of 3D protein shapes reached experimental-level accuracy. Something biologists had tried to solve for 50 years.
- Early DeepMind demos show their AI agents learning how to play Pong and Breakout entirely from scratch—with zero code about how to play the game.
- AlphaZero doesn’t just beat chess engines—it reinvents how to play, favoring bold, positional moves over brute force tactics.
- The film helps newcomers understand AGI without getting buried in jargon. It uses visuals and storytelling to keep things clear and high-stakes.
Great Demis Hassabis Quotes
On His and DeepMind’s Mission and Opportunity Overall
“Trying to build AGI is the most exiting journey that humans have ever embarked on.”
“My whole life’s goal is to solve artificial general intelligence. And on the way to use AI as the ultimate tool to solve all the world’s most scientific complex problems.”
“I think that’s bigger than the Internet. That’s bigger than mobile. That’s more like the advent of electricity or fire.”
On Weaponry:
“I personally think that having automous weaoponry is just a very bad idea.”
— Demis Hassabis (when asked about asked about him negotiating that Google wouldn’t use the technology for surveillance or weaponry)
On Nuclear Comparison
“I think that Oppenheimer and some of the other leaders in that project got caught up in the technology and seeing if it’s possible. They did not think carefully enough about the morals of what they were doing early enough. What we should do as scientists with powerful new technologies is try and understand it in controlled conditions first.”
–Demis Hassabis (comparing AI to Nuclear Power)
Cameos
- Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founders. Suleyman later founded Inflection AI. Legg is credited with popularizing the term “AGI.”
- Ke Jie, top Go player in the world at the time, appears during the AlphaGo rematch series held in China.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Demis compares AI risk to nuclear power, referencing Oppenheimer: “We have to think about morals early enough.”
- AlphaFold is now used by more than 500,000 researchers across the world. Its predictions have directly accelerated drug discovery and disease research.
- The doc touches on deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and AI privacy risks—especially around creating media or likenesses without consent.
- The storytelling balances awe and warning—it celebrates breakthroughs but always returns to the ethical stakes.
Wrap Up
“The Thinking Game” turns the abstract concept of AGI into something urgent, emotional, and real. It’s not just about what AI can do—it’s about who we become if it works.