The Co-Creator Of Theme Park Just Won The Nobel Prize 1
Image: EA

You may have read about Sir Demis Hassabis being jointly awarded the Nobel Chemistry Prize this week, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the name rang a bell – because, in his earlier years, Hassabis worked in the realm of video games.

After learning to code on a ZX Spectrum, Hassabis would join Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog Productions, where he would assist in the level design of the Amiga classic Syndicate. Aged just 17, he would then co-design Theme Park alongside Molyneux, a million-selling business simulation.

Hassabis would then step away from games to study at Queens' College, Cambridge, gaining a Double First in Computer Science Tripos in 1997. He would briefly reunite with Molyneux at Lionhead to work on Black & White before leaving to establish his own company, Elixir Studios, which produced the ambitious Republic: The Revolution and Evil Genius before closing in 2005.

He would return to the world of academia, later co-founding the AI startup DeepMind, which was purchased by Google for £400m in 2014. Hassabis, now aged 48, was knighted for services to AI earlier this year.

[source theguardian.com]