To have faith in the recent uptick of multibillion-dollar valuations for tech start-ups that have no profits, no sales and no product to speak of, you have to believe normal rules do not apply.
This, of course, is exactly what founders of artificial intelligence companies want you to think.
DeepMind co-founder Sir Demis Hassabis remembers feeling indignant when investors asked him about returns a decade ago. “I’m telling you this is the most important thing of all time,” he says in The Thinking Game, a new documentary about his company. “And you’re asking me how you’re going to make money? What’s your product? It’s like, so prosaic a question.”