Former schoolboy chess prodigy used AI to open door to finding cures for illnesses

As DeepMind, the British artificial intelligence (AI) firm owned by Google, claims to have solved one of science's toughest and most enduring mysteries, the'protein folding problem', you can't help but think what sort of genius must be the driving forced behind such a triumph. 'Thrilled to announce our first major breakthrough in applying AI to a grand challenge in science,' writes Demis Hassabis, the company's 44-year-old founder says in reaction to the news. But was it really a surprise that Hassabis' firm had achieved such a feat? Thirty years ago, Hassabis was the world's second best 12-year-old chess player, his career as a future grandmaster set out before him. 'Thrilled to announce our first major breakthrough in applying AI to a grand challenge in science,' writes Demis Hassabis, the company's 44-year-old founder says in reaction to the news But while he loved the game and what it taught him about his own thought processes that brought such success, the youngster realised the game of chess was not what actually interested him. 'It got me into thinking about the process of thought: what is intelligence, how is my brain coming up with these ideas?' Hassabis finished his A-levels at 15, and although he was accepted into Cambridge he would have to wait until he was old enough to enrol.