Google DeepMind: The Podcast
Join mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry as she goes behind the scenes of the world-leading research lab to uncover the extraordinary ways AI is transforming our world. No hype. No spin, just compelling discussions and grand scientific ambition.
Episodes
Can AI help us better predict the weather?
Can artificial intelligence solve one of science’s most chaotic physics puzzles? In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry sits down with Peter Battaglia, Senior Director of Research at Google DeepMind, to explore how machine learning is transforming global weather forecasting. From providing critical early warnings for Category 5 storms like Hurricane Melissa to predicting renewable energy supply and
The mathematics of AI uncertainty
Now, if you ask an AI a question, it will usually give you an absolute answer with unwavering authority, even if that answer turns out to be wrong. In fact, today's AI seems to be missing a fundamental human trait: self-doubt. Long before the current wave of large language models, one academic researcher was trying to give machines a sense of their own limitations. Zoubin Ghahramani has spent the
Understanding the inner thoughts of AI
Neel and his team are trying to do something phenomenally difficult: understand an intelligence that didn't come with a manual. Together, they explore the cutting-edge "neuroscience" of artificial intelligence—revealing the surprising, elegant structures being discovered inside these networks (like spare autoencoders), the inherent limits of looking under the hood, and why interpretability is abso
When millions of AI agents meet
Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
1:07 Defining AI agents
4:44 Agentic exploration in science and research
15:46 Delegation between agents
22:46 Agentic security and traps
29:31 Building an agentic economy
33:22 Cognitive monoculture
36:29 Distributed intelligence
To read the research, search for: Distributional AGI Safety, May 2026 Intelligent AI Delegation, February 2026 Virtual Agent Economies,
10 Years of AlphaGo: The Turning Point for AI | Thore Graepel & Pushmeet Kohli
Seoul, March 2016. Two players sit hunched over a 19x19 grid covered in a sea of black and white stones. They are playing the ancient game of Go - a game of unimaginable complexity long thought impossible for a machine to master. On one side is Lee Sedol (Sae Dol), a legendary 18-time Go world champion. On the other, AlphaGo, a neural network based AI system built on a powerful technique called re
The Future of Intelligence with Demis Hassabis (Co-founder and CEO of DeepMind)
Thanks for joining us this year. 🔔 Subscribe to stay updated on our return in 2026, and revisit our episode library to catch up on everything from driverless cars to drug discovery: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqYmG7hTraZBiUr6_Qf8YTS2Oqy3OGZEj
Please leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts if you enjoyed this episode. We always want to hear from our audience whether that's in the
The Arrival of AGI with Shane Legg (co-founder of DeepMind)
Further readingLevels of AGI paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.02462The road to AGI (Google DeepMind Podcast, S2): https://youtu.be/Uy4OYU7PQYAThanks to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to: Presenter: Professor Hannah FrySeries Producer: Dan HardoonEditor: Rami Tzabar Commissioner & Producer: Emma YousifMusic composition: Eleni ShawAudio engineer: Richard Courtice
Please
AlphaFold: Grand Challenge to Nobel Prize with John Jumper
Learn more about AlphaFold: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/Watch the story behind AlphaFold in The Thinking Game, now available for free: https://youtu.be/d95J8yzvjbQThank you to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to: Presenter: Professor Hannah FrySeries Producer: Dan HardoonEditor: Rami TzabarCommissioner & Producer: Emma YousifMusic composition: Eleni ShawAudi
Waymo: The future of autonomous driving with Vincent Vanhoucke
Learn more about Waymo: https://waymo.com/Thank you to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to: Presenter: Professor Hannah FrySeries Producer: Dan HardoonEditor: Rami TzabarCommissioner & Producer: Emma YousifMusic composition: Eleni ShawAudio engineer: Richard CourticeVideo editor: Anthony LeAudio engineer: Perry RogantinVisual identity: Rob AshleyCommissioned by Google Dee
Pt.2 Beyond Phishing: Cyber Threats in the Age of AI with Four Flynn
In part two, Hannah and Four tackle the human element at the heart of cybersecurity: Who are the bad actors, and what motivates them? They dissect the evolving strategies designed to stop social engineering attacks - like passkeys and risk-based authentication - and confront the complex security and privacy challenges that may be introduced by autonomous agents. Please leave us a review on Spotify
Pt.1 Beyond Phishing: Cyber Threats in the Age of AI with Four Flynn
Further reading:CodeMender: https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/introducing-codemender-an-ai-agent-for-code-security/Cybersecurity at Google: https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/ai-security-frontier-strategy-tools/Threat intelligence report: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/adversarial-misuse-generative-aiThanks to everyone who made this possible, including but
Genie 3: An Infinite World Model with Shlomi Fruchter and Jack Parker-Holder
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry speaks with Jack Parker-Holder and Shlomi Fruchter about Genie 3, a general-purpose world model that can generate an unprecedented diversity of interactive environments. The conversation covers how this model's auto-regressive nature allows for the creation of consistent, explorable worlds from text or image prompts, and how its capabilities differ from video
A Whistle Stop Tour of AI Creation with Paige Bailey
This week's episode is a slight departure from our usual deep dives. Join Paige Bailey, DevRel lead, as she guides Hannah Fry though some of her favorite AI tools. Having spent years understanding the 'what' of these models, Hannah finally gets to experience the 'how’ – from generating prompts and 'vibe coding', to creating her own version of the infamous spaghetti meme.Learn more and try the tool
The Nature of AI: Solving the Planet's Data Gap with Drew Purves
Further reading:Natural forests of the world: paper, data and benchmarksForest loss drivers: paper, summary from WRI, and blog from GFWForest loss drivers code: Google Earth Engine; at WRI; at GFW; or Zenodo. Deep learning based remote sensing (open source): Jeo, GeeFlowSpecies mapping paper: ArxivGoogle resources: Google Earth Engine. Agri with Google, wildlife camerasPerch: code, paperPerch x co
A Quest for a Cure: AI Drug Design with Isomorphic Labs
In this episode, host Hannah Fry is joined by Max Jaderberg and Rebecca Paul of Isomorphic Labs to explore the future of drug discovery in the age of AI. They discuss how new technology, particularly AlphaFold 3, is revolutionizing the field by predicting the structure of life’s molecules, paving the way for faster and more efficient drug discovery.They dig into the immense complexities of designi
Redefining Robotics with Carolina Parada
In this episode, Hannah is joined by Carolina Parada, Senior Director and Head of Robotics at Google DeepMind. They explore the recent leap forward in robotic capabilities, highlighting advancements in multimodal understanding and embodied reasoning, which enable robots to interact with the physical world with unprecedented generality.They dig into the two-system approach - ‘slow and fast thinking
AI and the Future of Health with Joelle Barral
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry interviews Joelle Barral, Senior Director of Research at Google DeepMind, about AI in healthcare. They discuss existing AI applications including image analysis for diabetic retinopathy and the expansion of diagnostic tools as a result of multi-modal models. The conversation highlights AI's potential to improve healthcare delivery, personalize treatment, expan
Consciousness, Reasoning and the Philosophy of AI with Murray Shanahan
In this episode, Hannah is once again joined by Murray Shanahan, Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London and Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind, for a philosophical deep dive on AI. They explore everything from consciousness and metacognition in animals, to symbolic AI and neural networks. Murray also shares insights into his involvement with the film 'Ex Machina' and discus
Is Human Data Enough? With David Silver
In this episode of Google DeepMind: The Podcast, VP of Reinforcement Learning, David Silver, describes his vision for the future of AI, exploring the concept of the "era of experience" versus the current "era of human data". Using AlphaGo and AlphaZero as examples, he highlights how these systems surpassed human capabilities by engaging in reinforcement learning without prior human knowledge. This
Project Astra: Exploring a Universal AI Assistant with Greg Wayne
In our final episode for the year, we explore Project Astra, a research prototype exploring future capabilities of a universal AI assistant that can understand the world around you. Host Hannah Fry is joined by Greg Wayne, Director in Research at Google DeepMind. They discuss the inspiration behind the research prototype, its current strengths and limitations, as well as potential future use cases
Gemini 2.0 and the Evolution of Agentic AI with Oriol Vinyals
In this episode, Hannah is joined by Oriol Vinyals, VP of Drastic Research and Gemini co-lead. They discuss the evolution of agents from single-task models to more general-purpose models capable of broader applications, like Gemini. Vinyals guides Hannah through the two-step process behind multi modal models: pre-training (imitation learning) and post-training (reinforcement learning). They discus
The Balancing Act: Regulation & AI with Nicklas Lundblad
There is broad consensus across the tech industry, governments and society, that as artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in every aspect of our world, regulation will be essential. But what does this look like? Can it be adopted without stifling innovation? Are current frameworks presented by government leaders headed in the right direction?Join host Hannah Fry as she discusses these ques
Inside NotebookLM with Raiza Martin and Steven Johnson
NotebookLM is a research assistant powered by Gemini that draws on expertise from storytelling to present information in an engaging way. It allows users to upload their own documents and generate insights, explanations, and—more recently—podcasts. This feature, also known as audio overviews, has captured the imagination of millions of people worldwide, who have created thousands of engaging podca
AI for Science with Sir Paul Nurse, Demis Hassabis, Jennifer Doudna, and John Jumper
Join Professor Hannah Fry at the AI for Science Forum for a fascinating conversation with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. They explore how AI is revolutionizing scientific discovery, delving into topics like the nuclear pore complex, plastic-eating enzymes, quantum computing, and the surprising power of Turing machines. The episode also features a special 'ask me anything' session with Nobel
The Ethics of AI Assistants with Iason Gabriel
Imagine a future where we interact regularly with a range of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) assistants — and where millions of assistants interact with each other on our behalf. These experiences and interactions may soon become part of our everyday reality.In this episode, host Hannah Fry and Google DeepMind Senior Staff Research Scientist Iason Gabriel discuss the ethical implications of
AI in the Classroom with Irina Jurenka
How human should an AI tutor be? What does ‘good’ teaching look like? Will AI lead in the classroom, or take a back seat to human instruction? Will everyone have their own personalized AI tutor? Join research lead, Irina Jurenka, and Professor Hannah Fry as they explore the complicated yet exciting world of AI in education. Further reading:Towards Responsible Development of Generative AI for Educa
AI: Supercharging Scientific Exploration with Pushmeet Kohli
In this episode, Professor Hannah Fry sits down with Pushmeet Kohli, VP of Research at Google DeepMind to discuss AI’s impact on scientific discovery. They go on a whirlwind tour of scientific projects, touching on recent breakthroughs in AlphaFold, material science, weather forecasting, and mathematics to better understand how AI can enhance our scientific understanding of the world.Further readi
Gaming, Goats & General Intelligence with Frederic Besse
Games are a very good training ground for agents. Think about it. Perfectly packaged, neatly constrained environments where agents can run wild, work out the rules for themselves, and learn how to handle autonomy. In this episode, Research Engineering Team Lead, Frederic Besse, joins Hannah as they discuss important research like SIMA (Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent) and what we can expect
Decoding Google Gemini with Jeff Dean
Professor Hannah Fry is joined by Jeff Dean, one of the most legendary figures in computer science and chief scientist of Google DeepMind and Google Research. Jeff was instrumental to the field in the late 1990s, writing the code that transformed Google from a small startup into the multinational company it is today. Hannah and Jeff discuss it all - from the early days of Google and neural network
AI Safety...Ok Doomer: with Anca Dragan
Building safe and capable models is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Can we make AI work for everyone? How do we prevent existential threats? Why is alignment so important? Join Professor Hannah Fry as she delves into these critical questions with Anca Dragan, lead for AI safety and alignment at Google DeepMind. For further reading, search "Introducing the Frontier Safety Framework" an
AI: Your New Creative Muse? with Douglas Eck
Professor Hannah Fry is joined by Google DeepMind's senior research director Douglas Eck to explore AI's capacity for true creativity. They delve into the complexities of defining creativity, the challenges of AI generated content and attribution, and whether AI can help us to connect with each other in new and meaningful ways. Want to watch the full episode? Subscribe to Google DeepMind's YouTube
Unreasonably Effective AI with Demis Hassabis
It has been a few years since Google DeepMind CEO and co-founder, Demis Hassabis, and Professor Hannah Fry caught up.In that time, the world has caught on to artificial intelligence—in a big way. Listen as they discuss the recent explosion of interest in AI, what Demis means when he describes chatbots as ‘unreasonably effective’, and the unexpected emergence of capabilities like conceptual underst
The promise of AI with Demis Hassabis
Hannah wraps up the series by meeting DeepMind co-founder and CEO, Demis Hassabis. In an extended interview, Demis describes why he believes AGI is possible, how we can get there, and the problems he hopes it will solve. Along the way, he highlights the important role of consciousness and why he’s so optimistic that AI can help solve many of the world’s major challenges. As a final note, Demis sha
Fair for all
AI needs to benefit everyone, not just those who build it. But fulfilling this promise requires careful thought before new technologies are built and released into the world. In this episode, Hannah delves into some of the most pressing and difficult ethical and social questions surrounding AI today. She explores complex issues like racial and gender bias and the misuse of AI technologies, and hea
Me, myself and AI
AI doesn’t just exist in the lab, it’s already solving a range of problems in the real world. In this episode, Hannah encounters a realistic recreation of her voice by WaveNet, the voice synthesising system that powers the Google Assistant and helps people with speech difficulties and illnesses regain their voices. Hannah also discovers how ‘deepfake’ technology can be used to improve weather fore
AI for science
Step inside DeepMind's laboratories and you'll find researchers studying DNA to understand the mysteries of life, seeking new ways to use nuclear energy, or putting AI to the test in mind-bending areas of maths. In this episode, Hannah meets Pushmeet Kohli, the head of science at DeepMind, to understand how AI is accelerating scientific progress. Listeners also join Hannah on a [virtual] safari in
The road to AGI
Hannah meets DeepMind co-founder and chief scientist Shane Legg, the man who coined the phrase ‘artificial general intelligence’, and explores how it might be built. Why does Shane think AGI is possible? When will it be realised? And what could it look like? Hannah also explores a simple theory of using trial and error to reach AGI and takes a deep dive into MuZero, an AI system which mastered com
Let's get physical
Do you need a body to have intelligence? And can one exist without the other? Hannah takes listeners behind the scenes of DeepMind's robotics lab in London where she meets robots that are trying to independently learn new skills, and explores why physical intelligence is a necessary part of intelligence. Along the way, she finds out how researchers trained their robots at home during lockdown, unc
Better together
Cooperation is at the heart of our society. Inventing the railway, giving birth to the Renaissance, and creating the Covid-19 vaccine all required people to combine efforts. But cooperation is so much more. It governs our education systems, healthcare, and food production. In this episode, Hannah meets the researchers working on cooperative AI, and hears about their work and influences from the fa
A breakthrough unfolds
In December 2019, DeepMind’s AI system, AlphaFold, solved a 50-year-old grand challenge in biology, known as the protein-folding problem. A headline in the journal Nature read, “It will change everything” and the President of the UK's Royal Society called it a “stunning advance [that arrived] decades before many in the field would have predicted”. In this episode, Hannah uncovers the inside story
Speaking of intelligence
Hannah explores the potential of language models, the questions they raise, and if teaching a computer about language is enough to create artificial general intelligence (AGI). Beyond helping us communicate ideas, language plays a crucial role in memory, cooperation, and thinking – which is why AI researchers have long aimed to communicate with computers using natural language. Recently, there has
DeepMind: The Podcast with Hannah Fry – Season 2 coming soon!
The chart-topping podcast which uncovers the extraordinary ways artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming our world is back for a second season. Join mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry behind the scenes of world-leading AI research lab DeepMind to get the inside story of how AI is being created – and how it can benefit our lives and the society we live in.Recorded over six month
Demis Hassabis: The interview
In this special extended episode, Hannah Fry meets Demis Hassabis, the CEO and co-founder of DeepMind. She digs into his former life as a chess player, games designer and neuroscientist and explores how his love of chess helped him to get start-up funding, what drives him and his vision, and why AI keeps him up at night.If you have a question or feedback on the series, message us on Twitter (@Deep
Towards the future
AI researchers around the world are trying to create a general purpose learning system that can learn to solve a broad range of problems without being taught how. Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind’s Director of Research, describes the journey to get there, and takes Hannah on a whistle-stop tour of DeepMind’s HQ and its research.If you have a question or feedback on the series, message us on Twitter (@D
AI for everyone
While there is a lot of excitement about AI research, there are also concerns about the way it might be implemented, used and abused. In this episode Hannah investigates the more human side of the technology, some ethical issues around how it is developed and used, and the efforts to create a future of AI that works for everyone.If you have a question or feedback on the series, message us on Twitt
Out of the lab
The ambition of much of AI research is to create systems that can help to solve problems in the real world. In this episode, Hannah meets the people building systems that could be used to save the sight of thousands, help us solve one of the most fundamental problems in biology and reduce energy consumption in an effort to combat climate change. But whilst there is great potential, there are also
AI, Robot
Forget what sci-fi has told you about superintelligent robots that are uncannily human-like; the reality is more prosaic. Inside DeepMind’s robotics laboratory, Hannah explores what researchers call ‘embodied AI’: robot arms that are learning tasks like picking up plastic bricks, which humans find comparatively easy. Discover the cutting-edge challenges of bringing AI and robotics together, and le
Life is like a game
Video games have become a favourite tool for AI researchers to test the abilities of their systems. In this episode, Hannah sits down to play StarCraft II - a challenging video game that requires players to control the onscreen action with as many as 800 clicks a minute. She is guided by Oriol Vinyals, an ex-professional StarCraft player and research scientist at DeepMind, who explains how the pro
Go to Zero
In March 2016, more than 200 million people watched AlphaGo become first computer program to defeat a professional human player at the game of Go, a milestone in AI research that was considered to be a decade ahead of its time. Since then the team has continued to develop the system and recently unveiled AlphaZero: a program that has taught itself how to play chess, Go, and shogi. Hannah explores
AI and Neuroscience: The virtuous circle
What can the human brain teach us about AI? And what can AI teach us about our own intelligence? These questions underpin a lot of AI research. In this first episode, Hannah meets the DeepMind Neuroscience team to explore these connections and discovers how our brains are like birds’ wings, what training a dog and an AI agent have in common, and why the simplest things for people to do are, parado
DeepMind: The Podcast - trailer
Selected as “New and Noteworthy” by Apple Podcasts, the highly-praised, award-nominated first season of "DeepMind: The Podcast" explores the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI). Join mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry as she meets world-class scientists and thinkers as they explain the foundations of AI, explore some of the challenges the field is wrestling with, and dives into
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