New DeepMind professorship at UCL to push frontiers of AI

Leading AI company DeepMind is establishing a Professorship of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at UCL - where two of its co-founders, Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg, were students. The new Professor, who will be based in UCL's Department of Computer Science, will spearhead AI research at the university in collaboration with other UCL researchers, enhancing the university's capabilities and world-class reputation in this rapidly evolving field. The new Professor will have full academic freedom to set his or her own research agenda. In addition to the Professorship, DeepMind's gift will also support two post-doctoral research associates and one PhD student, creating new opportunities for researchers to get ahead in this transformative emerging sector. DeepMind was founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman in 2010, after Demis, who had recently completed his PhD in neuroscience at the university met research associate Shane in UCL's Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit. Since then DeepMind has become one of the world's most renowned AI companies, gaining global attention in 2016 when its self-learning computer program AlphaGo took on a human grand master of the complex Chinese game Go and won four games out of five. The company has retained its strong connection with UCL throughout its development, including supporting AI research and learning at the university with philanthropic funding for a range of postgraduate scholarships for underrepresented backgrounds, and through teaching and course development.