Friends from the old neighborhood turn rivals in Big Tech’s AI race

Mustafa Suleyman grew up in subsidized housing in one of London’s roughest areas. His father, a Syrian immigrant, drove a taxi. His mother was a nurse with the National Health Service. When the prestigious Queen Elizabeth’s School accepted him at age 11, the family moved into a safer, leafier neighborhood a few miles north.
There, he met 20-year-old Demis Hassabis, after becoming friends with his younger brother. Hassabis was a chess prodigy and video game designer whose parents — one a Greek Cypriot, the other a Singaporean — ran a London toy store.