Demis Hassabis

AI researcher

Last July DeepMind, the AI research company of which Demis Hassabis is co-founder and CEO, caused a revolution in the life sciences. It published the code behind AlphaFold, software developed using machine learning that can accurately predict how proteins fold. By sharing rather than hoarding this precious information, Hassabis handed scientists the tools to find new drug treatments in record time, supercharging research in almost every area of biology and making a bold case for the democratisation of science. One year on, AlphaFold has provided researchers with almost a million protein structure predictions.

If anyone can claim to have written the definitive fictional account of the internet, then it is Patricia Lockwood. Her 2021 novel No One Is Talking About This explores life and grief in the online world and asks whether there are some things that can never be turned into social media fodder. Lockwood first became famous when her 2013 poem “Rape Joke” went viral. She has since published two poetry collections and has written hilarious takedowns of John Updike and Karl Ove Knausgård. Her 2017 memoir, Priestdaddy, describes her Midwest childhood—her father was a Lutheran pastor who converted to become a married Catholic priest.