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Shane Legg

DEEPMIND BEFORE GEMINI

FILE UPDATED Oct 8, 2026

WHY THEY MATTER

DeepMind's co-founder wrote his PhD on machine superintelligence before it was fashionable, gave the world a way to measure machine intelligence, and became Google's chief AGI scientist.

THE RAP SHEET

ZIMBO'S READ ON Shane Legg

Sunday strip: Rotorua kid at a computer; 'artificial general intelligence' amid laughter; 2008 'Machine Super Intelligence' thesis, $10,000 prize; 2010 DeepMind founded; 2014 Google buys it; 2023 Chief AGI Scientist; finale: Legg and Demis Hassabis in a rowboat gaze at giant padlocked machines.

THE SUPERINTELLIGENCE THESIS

DEEP FILE

THE WHOLE FILE

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THE QUIET THIRD FOUNDER OF DEEPMIND

DeepMind's co-founder wrote his PhD on machine superintelligence before it was fashionable, gave the world a way to measure machine intelligence, and became Google's chief AGI scientist.

  1. 1973

    KIWI KID WHO'D ONE DAY GRADE MACHINES LIKE HUMANS

    Shane Legg was born in 1973 in New Zealand, attended Rotorua Lakes High School, and earned degrees at the University of Waikato and University of Auckland.

    SOURCES: Wikipediareported

  2. Jun 2008

    MAN WRITES 'MACHINE SUPER INTELLIGENCE' THESIS, BANKS $10K

    Legg defended his PhD thesis Machine Super Intelligence at IDSIA in Switzerland under Marcus Hutter, formalizing a universal measure of machine intelligence; the Singularity Institute awarded it a $10,000 prize.

    SOURCES: ResearchGatereported

  3. Sep 2010

    THREE GUYS FOUND DEEPMIND TO 'SOLVE INTELLIGENCE'

    Legg co-founded DeepMind Technologies in London with Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman to build artificial general intelligence by combining deep learning, reinforcement learning, and neuroscience.

    SOURCES: Tech Advisorreported

  4. Jun 2011

    AI DOOM ON THE RECORD: 'MAYBE 5%, MAYBE 50%' ON EXTINCTION

    In a LessWrong Q&A, Legg assigned 10%/50%/90% odds for human-level AI by 2018/2028/2050 and said he had no good estimate of AI-caused human extinction: 'Maybe 5%, maybe 50%.'

    SOURCES: LessWrongreported

  5. Jan 2014

    GOOGLE SNAPS UP DEEPMIND FOR £400M IN RECORD EUROPEAN DEAL

    Google bought DeepMind on 27 January 2014 for £400 million, its biggest European acquisition at the time, acquiring a startup whose stated mission was 'to solve intelligence'.

    SOURCES: Tech Advisorreported

  6. Jun 2019

    DEEPMIND'S THIRD MAN GETS A CBE

    Legg was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to the science and technology sector and to investment.

    SOURCES: Wikipediareported

  7. Apr 2023

    DEEPMIND ABSORBS GOOGLE BRAIN — LEGG BECOMES CHIEF AGI SCIENTIST

    Google merged DeepMind with Google Brain into Google DeepMind in April 2023; Legg, previously chief scientist, became Chief AGI Scientist.

    SOURCES: nextomororeported

  8. Sep 2023

    TIME NAMES LEGG ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL IN AI

    TIME's inaugural TIME100 AI list named Legg among the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence, as co-founder and Chief AGI Scientist of Google DeepMind.

    SOURCES: TIME / PR Newswirereported

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