X-Book

The Infinity Machine

Click Buy to Log in and see personalised pricing.

Send as a gift Get in the xigxag app
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A revelatory portrait of the visionary behind Google DeepMind, the race to control the future – and what it means to win
Even in a tech world crowded with visionary leaders, Demis Hassabis is recognized as a special case. Born to working class, immigrant parents in North London, a chess prodigy by five and wizard coder in his teens, he turned down a seven-figure job offer from a video-game studio to study science at Cambridge. Long before the current obsession with AI, he founded the path-breaking company DeepMind in order to pursue a single, audacious goal: the dream of artificial superintelligence, which would solve humanity’s hardest problems, change life and work as we know it, and perhaps even unlock the deepest mysteries of the Universe. For his scientific achievements, he won a Nobel Prize in 2024, and his company, now Google DeepMind, is considered the tech giant’s engine room.
For the past three years, Sebastian Mallaby has had unprecedented access to Hassabis and DeepMind, conducting hundreds of hours of interviews with him and his inner circle as well as detractors and rivals at other companies. The result is a revelation-packed portrait of a singular mind and a historic reckoning with the AI revolution, a shift potentially more significant than any since the dawn of complex thought 70,000 years ago.
As Mallaby chronicles, DeepMind is locked in an arms race with Silicon Valley competitors to build artificial general intelligence, and thereby become the keeper of humanity’s future. Yet this is not a Silicon Valley story. Hassabis has remained in Britain, and unlike his rivals, his aims are not wealth and power but scientific enlightenment. Like them, however, he is haunted by the memory of Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the atom bomb. He aims to control the technology, but the technology may ultimately control him – and humanity writ large.

'Extraordinary... beautifully written, clear-eyed and engaged in the deepest ethical questions of our day' Rory Stewart

© Sebastian Mallaby 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

The highest praise for The Infinity Machine is to say that Mallaby has done full justice to his kaleidoscopically interesting subject ... expertly structured and vividly reported, the book presents the most insightful portrait of Hassabis to date
John Thornhill
When it comes to recounting the scientific challenges, Mallaby captures wonderfully the tension, the excitement and the joy
The Times
With unprecedented access, Mallaby had a front row seat... what results is a rich and clearly written account
Economist
An extraordinary portrait of our age – beautifully written, clear-eyed and engaged in the deepest ethical questions of our day
Rory Stewart
Gripping, absolutely of the moment... I loved it because it's filled with really important ideas about how this wave of AI is changing our economy... but it's also got the element of a thriller
The Rest is Money
Narrates this extraordinary saga, revealing deep truths about AI and showing how a determined man can shape history in unlikely ways
Financial Times
Mallaby, a longtime financial journalist, is a nimble storyteller, and his portrait of one of the single-minded personalities plunging the world into an uncertain future is also an engaging drama of discovery
New Yorker
A hugely acclaimed recent book…a lot of people are talking about
Today Programme
Fascinating
CNN
In this deeply reported and profoundly insightful book, Sebastian Mallaby chronicles the brilliant Demis Hassabis and the company he cofounded ... a colourful and engrossing tale but also a sophisticated description of how AI developed
Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk
Author Sebastian Mallaby
Narrator Vidish Athavale
Duration 15 hours and 6 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781837313648
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Artificial intelligence, Biography: business and industry, Biography: science, technology and medicine, Digital and information technologies: social and ethical aspects, Ethical issues: scientific, technological and medical developments
Availability AU, GB, IE

More from the same

Author

Narrator

About xigxag

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.