It seems that a day doesn’t go by without a news story about AI – Artificial Intelligence. It’s a topic that is showing more concern with the more advanced and sophisticated it gets.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom as far as AI is concerned, as this documentary reveals.

Having left Cambr1dge University, scientist Demis Hassabis was keen to explore the world of AI, specifically AGI – Artificial General Intelligence, which specifically has the ability to think for itself.

So he started his own company, Deep Mind. He and his small group started to play around with Atari video games, by creating an AI that would play the game without any other command than to beat their opponent. This meant that it would play again and again, learning something different every time it did, to the point that it had worked out to not only play, but win.

This caught the attention of Silicon Valley, who were keen to have Deep Mind move across to continue their research. However Hassabis was adamant to keep the company in London, knowing that there was a lot of talent there to work on the project. And he wasn’t wrong.

Before they knew it, Google were knocking on their door, with a cheque for $400 million in 2014, which Hassabis accepted, on the understanding that their research was not to be used for any military applications, and that they remained in London.

After playing games, and winning them all, the team decided to set their sights on more practical research, that of protein folding, that if successful, would have worldwide implications within various medical fields.

With so much doom mongering as far as AI is concerned – and quite rightly too - it’s refreshing to see it be presented in a far more positive light. Hassabis genuinely comes across as one of the good guys, and his is a remarkable story. His belief that AI can think for itself and can truly aid mankind, with the possibility of solving the problems that have eluded us for so long, like finding cures for cancer, is truly inspirational.

Yes it’s a little dry, but that’s only to be expected, after all, the majority of tech scientists are serious individuals, as flamboyant personalities are often shown by the likes of comedy socks or novelty ties. Crazy guys.

And although his creation may well leave you in awe, you can’t help but feel that if it fell into the wrong hands, every AI sceptic could soon be proved right, as we all suddenly hear the heavy thud of robots knocking on our doors, to politely inform us that our time is up.

Still this is uplifting and positive AI PR, and certainly illustrates that as far as AI is concerned, we’re not necessarily all as doomed as the media makes us out to be. Or are we...Alexa, will AI be the death of mankind? Alexa?...