Shuby headshot

DeepMind’s CEO does a ‘second day’ of work at night: ‘I come alive at about 1 a.m.’

by with No Comment Xpandfy

You’re not the only one with a strange sleep routine.

In a video interview with Fortune released on Wednesday, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said he sleeps very little and splits his waking hours into two working days.

“I do try and get six, but I have unusual sleeping habits,” he said, about his number of hours of sleep. “I sort of manage during the day.”

He said that any less sleep than that would be bad for the brain.

Hassabis cofounded DeepMind in 2010, which Google acquired in 2014. It merged with Google Brain in 2023 to form Google DeepMind, the lab behind tools such as Gemini and Nano Banana. The CEO and a DeepMind coworker, John Jumper, were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work on protein structure prediction.

Hassabis said that he tries to pack his day in the office with as many meetings as possible with “almost no time” in between. He then gets home, spends time with family, and has dinner.

“Then I sort of start a second day of work about 10 p.m. and go to 4 a.m., where I do my thinking and kind of more creative work and research work,” he said.

The CEO added that he’s followed this schedule for about a decade. Hassabis earlier spoke about his sleep routine in a 2017 interview with BBC Radio.

“I can’t imagine being creative at four in the morning. But, I come alive at about 1 a.m.,” he told Fortune’s Alyson Shontell.

Hassabis’ routine matches what other tech founders have shared about their sleep schedules, especially during the early stages of founding or growing their businesses.

Elon Musk has said that he functions best with about six hours of sleep — any less affects his performance. In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg, Musk said that he slept on the floor of a Tesla factory during some production periods.

Marc Benioff, meanwhile, said in a 2023 interview that he averages about eight hours of sleep.




Source link

Nathan Rennolds

Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariffs over Beijing trade deal: ‘China will eat Canada alive’

by with No Comment Xpandfy

President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canadian goods and products exported to the US should Ottawa make a trade deal with China.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whom he called “Governor Carney,” against making a “drop off” deal with Beijing or face the levies.

“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” Trump wrote.

“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” he added.

Carney made an official visit to China last week — the first by a Canadian leader since 2017 — meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss economic and trade opportunities between the two countries.

In a joint statement following the meeting, Ottawa and Beijing said they had committed to expanding bilateral trade and investment, as well as building cooperation in areas such as energy and agriculture.

Carney also announced that Canada would now allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market on the “most-favoured-nation tariff rate of 6.1%.” In return, he said Canada expected China to lower tariffs on Canadian canola seed to around 15% by March 1.

Trump had initially said that the deal was what Carney “should be doing” and that it was “a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.”

Trump’s changing tone comes days after Carney delivered an impassioned speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he opined on the changing face of global politics since Trump’s election.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney, who did not explicitly name Trump, said, adding that “middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

Trump did not miss the opportunity to snap back at Carney during his own speech at Davos, saying the prime minister “wasn’t so grateful.”

“Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements,” he added.




Source link