Google DeepMind COO Lila Ibrahim on the responsibility of building AI

London CNN — Lila Ibrahim’s first love is not computers. … I feel like I had almost a moral calling to be in this role and all of a sudden, my very weird, circuitous background kind of makes sense with where I’m sitting right now.” One thing she has learned, Ibrahim said, is that she’s not very good at predicting the future: “But I’m very good at building it.” Lila Ibrahim, pictured here giving a speech on stage in Geneva, Switzerland in 2023, has spoken openly about the need for careful consideration in the development of artificial intelligence. Google DeepMind While that “outsider” mentality initially felt like a hurdle, Ibrahim says the biggest lesson she’s learned is to accept it as a superpower – and wishes she’d done so sooner. “We have a portfolio of research that’s happening not just in biology but in chemistry, in physics, and so much more.” Video Ad Feedback Why the COO of one of the world's foremost AI companies spent 50 hours interviewing for her job 01:38 - Source: CNN “Pioneers end up with arrows in their back” It hasn’t always been easy, Ibrahim says; even with AlphaFold, there were periods when they weren’t sure it would ever work. Let me pull the arrows out, so you can run further and faster.’” Now, Ibrahim says, she’s in the position to remove arrows from the back of her team, while still taking a few of her own, in an attempt “to give folks the space to do what’s right.” While Ibrahim says she’s benefited from her mentors – which, she pointed out, were all men – she hopes the time soon comes when she and other women in tech no longer feel like outsiders.