A British scientist has credited playing chess with helping him win the Nobel Prize.
Sir Demis Hassabis the chief executive and co-founder of the artificial intelligence giant Google DeepMind, won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for his work on the AI programme AlphaFold.
The programme can accurately predict the 3D shape and structure of proteins and help scientists try to treat medical conditions such as Parkinson’s.
Sir Demis, a computer engineer and neuroscientist, was a child chess prodigy from the age of four and used winnings from tournaments to buy his first computer as a teenager.
He said today that the board game, as well as his love of playing and making video games, fuelled his passion for artificial intelligence.
He told reporters, “Chess is what got me into AI from the start. “I would encourage kids to play games, but not just to play them, but to make them. That is one of the best ways into programming and engineering. It is a really fun way to get into the guts of how computers work.”
