Google DeepMind Documentary: "The Thinking Game"

Rarely does a documentary in the world of science and research achieve the kind of popularity typically reserved for general entertainment content, but a new documentary from Google DeepMind has changed that perception.

The film, titled The Thinking Game, which was released on November 25 on DeepMind’s official YouTube channel, has crossed 200 million views in just four weeks. This extraordinary achievement was announced by DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis himself on December 28.

This feature-length documentary gives an inside look at the struggle of artificial intelligence, which aims not just for better chatbots, but for artificial general intelligence, or AGI. The most important and historic moment in the film is when the DeepMind team realizes that they have solved a fifty-year-old problem in biology. This success led to AlphaFold, which made it possible to predict protein structure at the atomic level, and for which Demis Hassabis and his colleague John Jumper were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Another highlight of the documentary is its presentation style. It is directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Greg Kohs, who previously made the acclaimed 2017 documentary AlphaGo. The Thinking Game was filmed over five years inside DeepMind’s London headquarters, where the filmmakers had unprecedented access to high-stakes meetings, decisive scientific moments, and an environment full of human pressure. The music was composed by renowned composer Dan Deacon and recorded at Abbey Road Studios.

According to Demis Hassabis, the documentary is perfect for watching during the holidays, especially for those who want to know how an AGI lab actually works and how a Nobel Prize-winning project comes to life. The decision to release the film for free on YouTube instead of traditional streaming platforms was also a clear strategy, aimed at promoting scientific understanding of AI among the public, not just for commercial gain.

Alphafold’s impact is not limited to theory. Today, more than 2 million researchers from 190 countries around the world have benefited from the technology, while its database contains more than 200 million predicted protein structures, which is giving unprecedented speed to drug development and disease research. That is why The Thinking Game was also awarded the honor of Official Selection at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.

This documentary is a clear example of how, when scientific research is combined with a human story, it not only makes sense but can also reach millions of people.