Eliezer Yudkowsky

Yudkowsky, an internet philosopher and self-taught A.I. researcher, helped seed much of the philosophical thinking around the technology. He was a leader in a community who called themselves Rationalists or, in later years, effective altruists, and who believed in the power of A.I. but also worried the technology could destroy people. Yudkowsky hosted an annual conference (funded by Peter Thiel) on A.I., where Demis Hassabis met Thiel and secured his backing for DeepMind.