Photo: Wikimedia Commons
#19Founder/CEOReinforcement Learning & Decision
David Silver
Ineffable Intelligence (founder)
Timeline
2015AlphaGo defeats Fan Hui
2016AlphaGo defeats Lee Sedol
2017AlphaZero masters chess/Go from scratch
2026Founded Ineffable Intelligence
"The game of Go has long been viewed as the most challenging of classic games for AI."
Biography
Former lead researcher at DeepMind. Creator of AlphaGo & AlphaZero. Left DeepMind in 2026 to found Ineffable Intelligence.
💡 My Take
The AlphaGo documentary is possibly the best AI content ever made — watch it. Silver's RL course at UCL is the gold standard for learning reinforcement learning. His move to found Ineffable Intelligence signals he believes the most impactful AI work is now happening outside big labs.
Key Influence
Created AlphaGo — the moment AI beat human intuition. AlphaZero mastered chess/Go/shogi from scratch.
📄 Research Papers
🎙️ Videos & Interviews
Awards & Recognition
ACM Prize in Computing 2019