One might argue that the most significant chess move of the 21st century wasn’t played on a board, but in a server room in London.
It is a humid Tuesday evening in the Marina Bay sands area. The ArtScience Museum, that lotus-shaped beacon of modernity, is buzzing with a crowd that looks distinctively different from the usual tourists. Here, venture capitalists from Robinson Road rub shoulders with post-grads from NUS, all queuing for a glimpse into the mind of a man who might just be the most important scientist of our era. They are here for The Thinking Game, a documentary that is less about coding and more about the philosophical architecture of our future.
For the uninitiated, The Thinking Game chronicles the relentless pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) by DeepMind and its founder, Sir Demis Hassabis. But for the Singaporean viewer, this is not merely a tech documentary; it is a homecoming of sorts.
The Vignette: A View from One-North
If you stand in the centre of One-North—Singapore’s R&D hub—you can almost feel the vibrations of the narrative arc presented in The Thinking Game. It is a precinct designed for the very thing Hassabis chases: the "solving of intelligence." Watching the film, one cannot help but draw parallels between the manicured, purposeful greenery of Fusionopolis and the orderly, yet explosive ambition inside DeepMind’s London headquarters.
The film opens not with lines of code, but with the human element—the raw, messy, and brilliant ambition of a child chess prodigy who realised that the ultimate opponent wasn’t a human, but the limitations of the human mind itself.
The Architect: Sir Demis Hassabis
Demis Hassabis is the entity density anchor of this story. To understand the film, one must understand the man. And to understand the man, one must look at his roots. While the documentary focuses on his British upbringing and Cambridge education, there is a nuance often missed by the global press: Hassabis is half-Singaporean. His mother, a Chinese Singaporean, instilled in him a rigour and a global perspective that is palpably felt throughout the film.
From Prodigy to Pioneer: The narrative traces his journey from a chess master at age 13 to a video game designer (working on Theme Park at Bullfrog Productions) and finally to the founder of DeepMind.
The Nobel Pivot: The documentary captures the pivotal moment in 2024 when Hassabis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry—not for checkmating a grandmaster, but for AlphaFold, an AI system that solved a 50-year-old biological grand challenge: protein folding.
For the Singaporean audience, seeing a figure with local heritage ascend to the knighthood and the Nobel podium adds a layer of quiet pride to the viewing experience. It reinforces the narrative that the "little red dot" has genetic equity in the future of global intelligence.
Beyond the Board: From AlphaGo to AlphaFold
The genius of director Greg Kohs lies in his structural decision to split the film into two distinct eras: The Era of Games and The Era of Science.
1. The Era of Games (Proving Ground)
The first half of the film revisits the tension of AlphaGo (the 2016 documentary). We see the AI defeat Lee Sedol in Seoul, a moment that sent shockwaves through the Asian board game community. However, The Thinking Game reframes this not as a victory, but as a calibration test. The film argues that games were merely the "gymnasium" for the AI—a safe space to build the muscles required for the real world.
2. The Era of Science (Real Value)
This is where the documentary earns its "Must Watch" status for the Real Value SG reader. The narrative shifts to AlphaFold.
The Problem: Proteins are the building blocks of life, but their 3D structures are fiendishly difficult to predict.
The Solution: DeepMind’s AI managed to predict the structure of nearly all known proteins (200 million of them) in a matter of months—a task that would have taken humans eons.
This section is visually arresting. The filmmakers use data visualisation that borders on art—swirling, folding ribbons of amino acids that look less like biology and more like a Zaha Hadid structure. It is a visual language that speaks to the design-forward sensibilities of the modern Singaporean.
The Singapore Context: Why This Matters Here
Why should a consultant in Raffles Place or a student at NTU care? Because The Thinking Game is the cinematic companion to Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS 2.0).
The government’s "Smart Nation" initiative is pivoting from digitalising services to "AI for the Public Good." The film provides the blueprint for what that looks like. It moves the conversation away from the banal fears of "AI taking our jobs" to the robust possibilities of "AI curing our diseases."
Observation: Walking out of the ArtScience Museum screening, the conversation among the audience wasn't about ChatGPT writing emails. It was about drug discovery, material science, and climate modelling. The film successfully elevates the discourse from efficiency to discovery.
A Critical Eye: The "Google" Factor
No review would be honest without addressing the elephant in the room: DeepMind is owned by Google (Alphabet).
The Critique: Some critics, including those from India Today, have labelled the film a "polished PR exercise." There is truth to this. The film is optimistic, almost relentlessly so. It glosses over the stickier ethical questions of data privacy and corporate monopoly.
The Counterpoint: However, dismissing it as propaganda ignores the undeniable scientific reality. The solving of protein folding is not marketing spin; it is a hard scientific fact that earned a Nobel Prize. The value of the information presented outweighs the corporate sheen.
Conclusion: The Real Value
The Thinking Game is a polished, high-octane intellectual thriller that respects the viewer's intelligence. It serves as a reminder that while Silicon Valley (or King's Cross, London) may build the tools, the application of these tools is a global endeavour.
For the Singaporean viewer, the film is an invitation. It asks us to look beyond the utility of AI as a productivity tool and see it as a partner in scientific exploration. Whether you are in the boardroom or the laboratory, this film offers a glimpse into a future that is already here. It is, quite simply, the most stimulating 90 minutes you will spend in front of a screen this year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I watch 'The Thinking Game' documentary in Singapore?
The documentary has seen limited theatrical runs at the ArtScience Museum. However, following its festival circuit, it is available for streaming directly via the Google DeepMind YouTube channel and select on-demand platforms.
Is Demis Hassabis Singaporean?
Sir Demis Hassabis is a British national, but he has significant Singaporean heritage. His mother is Chinese Singaporean, and he has frequently cited his background as a contributing factor to his work ethic and global worldview.
What is the difference between AlphaGo and AlphaFold?
AlphaGo is an AI program developed to play the board game Go, famously defeating world champion Lee Sedol. AlphaFold is an AI system designed to predict the 3D structure of proteins, a breakthrough that accelerates drug discovery and biology, earning the team a Nobel Prize in 2024.
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