Read by Demis Hassabis
What books does Demis Hassabis recommend?
The Demis Hassabis book recommendations here come from the Nobel laureate and co-founder of Google DeepMind, who moved from chess prodigy and game designer to leading the quest for artificial general intelligence. Sixteen titles are drawn from appearances on the Lex Fridman and Tim Ferriss podcasts, BBC Desert Island Discs, interviews with The Guardian, and his Twitter posts. Science and technology and speculative fiction dominate, alongside philosophy, society and history. His all-time favorite is Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, which he names as one of his favorite books of all time. Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas was very formative for him, and he calls it the best depiction of an optimistic post-AGI future where humanity has reached its full flourishing. He praises Nick Lane's Life Ascending as fantastic and calls Benjamín Labatut's The MANIAC haunting and beautiful. Hassabis has not authored any books.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
The Glass Bead Game
Magister Ludi
byHermann Hesse
1943558 Pages“Really reminds me of one of my favourite books of all-time: 'The Glass Bead Game' by the incomparable Hermann Hesse.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Twitter Post
byNick Lane
2009352 Pages“There's a great book by Nick Lane, one of the top experts in this area, called The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution. I think it's fantastic.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #475
byBenjamín Labatut
2023368 Pages“It's unclear how much is fiction, how much is reality. But I think the central figure that is John von Neumann, I would say it's a haunting and beautiful [book].”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #475
Read by Demis Hassabis
Game Changer
AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI
byMatthew Sadler, Natasha Regan
2019416 Pages“Huge congratulations... seeing the wonderful influence that #AlphaZero and your brilliant Game Changer book has had on the game we all love.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Book Foreword / Twitter
Consider Phlebas
A Culture Novel
byIain M. Banks
1987471 Pages“Very formative for me... I still think it's the best depiction of a post-AGI future, an optimistic post-AGI future, where we're traveling the stars and humanity reached its full flourishing.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #299
byGreg Egan
1994310 Pages“I think it's an amazing story, actually wild story, of how interesting and strange I think the world can get in the context of A.I., and simulations.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #299
The Fabric of Reality
The Science of Parallel Universes—and Its Implications
byDavid Deutsch
1997400 Pages(5,941)
“I think that poses all the big questions in physics that I would love one day to tackle with our AI tools.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #299
Creativity, Inc.
Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
byEd Catmull, Amy Wallace
2014368 Pages“There's a brilliant book called Creativity Inc that was written about Pixar. I try to collect together all these different experiences and figure out how to translate them into a scientific context.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: The Guardian Interview
Read by Tim Ferriss, Barack Obama, Ray Dalio and 21 others
byYuval Noah Harari
2014443 Pages(1,100,000)
“There's not many times where I read a book and come out with 20 new ideas I hadn't thought about before, and [this book] made me think like that.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #299
Read by Demis Hassabis
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll
byDouglas R. Hofstadter
1999777 Pages“A really big scientific book for me... it's an incredible piece of work... just really inspiring for me and made me think about these deep questions.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: The Guardian Interview
Read by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and 8 others
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King
byJ.R.R. Tolkien
19541178 Pages(721,705)
“It's such a beautiful world he created.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: BBC Desert Island Discs
byIsaac Asimov
1991320 Pages“Some of the really formative things on me were Asimov's Foundation series... really amazing series of sci-fi novels.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: BBC Desert Island Discs
Read by Barack Obama, Sam Altman, Ray Dalio and 14 others
byDaniel Kahneman
2011498 Pages“I think for its time it was an amazing thought experiment.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #299
Read by Elon Musk, Naval Ravikant, Mark Zuckerberg and 1 others
byIain M. Banks
1988309 Pages“Same with player of games and consider phlebas, although maybe it's just cos that's the order I read them in.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #299
Diaspora
A Novel
byGreg Egan
1997376 Pages“Yes agreed, diaspora is amazing, but I think it's best to read permutation city first.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Twitter Post
Read by Demis Hassabis
Dreams of a Final Theory
The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature
bySteven Weinberg
1994352 Pages“I actually read this book, must have been in high school... All about a physicist struggling to find a final theory of everything.”
— Demis Hassabis
Source: Academy of Achievement Interview
Also recommends books in
Frequently asked questions
What books does Demis Hassabis recommend?
His 16 recommendations include The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas, Nick Lane's Life Ascending, Benjamín Labatut's The MANIAC, and Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach.
What is Demis Hassabis's favorite book?
Hassabis names Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game as one of his favorite books of all time. Among science fiction, he calls Banks's Consider Phlebas very formative and the best depiction of an optimistic post-AGI future.
What science fiction does Demis Hassabis recommend?
He points to Iain M. Banks's Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, Greg Egan's Permutation City and Diaspora, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings for its beautiful world-building.
Where do Demis Hassabis's book recommendations come from?
They come from the Lex Fridman Podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, BBC Desert Island Discs, interviews with The Guardian and the Academy of Achievement, and his posts on Twitter.
What genres does Demis Hassabis read most?
His list is dominated by science and technology and by fiction, especially science fiction from authors like Banks, Egan and Asimov, with further threads of philosophy, society and politics, and history running throughout.
All 16 Books Demis Hassabis Has Recommended
- The Glass Bead Game · Hermann Hesse
- Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution · Nick Lane
- The MANIAC · Benjamín Labatut
- Game Changer · Matthew Sadler
- Consider Phlebas · Iain M. Banks
- Permutation City · Greg Egan
- The Fabric of Reality · David Deutsch
- Creativity, Inc. · Ed Catmull
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind · Yuval Noah Harari
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid · Douglas R. Hofstadter
- The Lord of the Rings · J.R.R. Tolkien
- Foundation · Isaac Asimov
- Thinking, Fast and Slow · Daniel Kahneman
- The Player of Games · Iain M. Banks
- Diaspora · Greg Egan
- Dreams of a Final Theory · Steven Weinberg