LONDON: The co-founder of Google-owned artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepMind has said children should be encouraged to play video games because it can help to boost their creativity.

Demis Hassabis said his own experiences gaming had played a part in his success as a computer scientist and entrepreneur. He sold DeepMind to Google for a reported US$500mil in 2014.

"It’s important to feed the creative part, not just playing them (games)," Hassabis said, speaking to the BBC.

"You never know where your passions lead, so I would actually just encourage parents to get their children really passionate about things, and then develop their skills through that."

Hassabis said children needed to prepare and adapt for what will be a "very fast-changing world" and should "just embrace that adaptability."

The 47-year-old founded DeepMind in 2010 after studying at Cambridge University before it was bought by Google four years later. The company develops algorithms and machine programmes that learn how to play video games and navigate ecommerce like humans.

Demis Hassabis was formerly an adviser to the UK Government’s Office for Artificial Intelligence and took part in the coronavirus scientific advisory group to aid its response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

 - dpa