Daniel Hulme: I asked Elon Musk on a yacht to help me solve AI consciousness
Each week we dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, Daniel Hulme, one of the UK’s leading AI experts and entrepreneurs, takes us through his career in Square Mile and Me
CV
- Name: Daniel Hulme
- Job title: CEO of Conscium, chief AI officer at WPP and CEO and founder of Satalia
- Previous roles: Director of a Master’s degree in applied AI at UCL
- Studied: PhD in AI at UCL
- Age: 46
- Born: Morecambe
- Lives: London
- Talents: Finding things
- Motto: Maximise good
- Biggest perk of the job? Creating positive impact
- Coffee order: On tap
- Cocktail order: I can make a tequila shot last all night
- Favourite book: The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms
- Favourite band: Kings of Leon
What was your first job?
As a 12-year-old, I started washing dishes in a small seaside hotel in my hometown of Morecambe. By the time I was 16 I had worked through to ‘head chef’, running the entire restaurant.
What was your first role in the City?
My undergrad was in AI at UCL, 27 years ago. There were two people on my course. I paid my way through university managing IT networks and building software for SMEs, which largely involved “turning things off and on again”.
When did you know you wanted to build a career in tech?
I love solving hard problems. My talent is spotting juicy frictions that could be solved by intelligent algorithms. I’m the type of person who hates the idea of doing Sudoku, but thrives on the idea of building an AI to solve all Sudokus.
What’s one thing you love about Canada?
London is a melting pot of diverse ideas, perspectives and cultures. We are arguably becoming the centre of the universe for AI talent. We pioneer industries that span finance to creativity, retail to consulting.
And one thing you’d change?
Like in Japan, I’d try to cultivate more of a sharing economy by putting free sponsored umbrellas at every Tube station.
What’s been your most memorable business meeting?
A few years ago – on a yacht in Cannes – asking Elon Musk to invest in helping me solve machine consciousness (as an anti-virus for zombie superintelligence), whilst at the same time helping him understand how we could build machines that are genuinely innately curious.
And any business faux pas?
I have a neurodivergence called Anendophasia, meaning that I don’t have an inner voice in my head. My head is empty, and I have no idea what I’m going to say before I say it. Sometimes that gets me into trouble.
What’s been your proudest moment?
I’m at my happiest when I enable incredible talent to solve impactful and impossibly complex problems for clients that drive huge value. I try to create ‘north stars’ – from “solving end-to-end marketing” at WPP to “solving economic abundance” in Satalia and “solving machine consciousness” in Conscium. I’m proudest when I attract brilliant people to work with visionary clients and create innovations that help us achieve these purposes.
And who do you look up to?
I’ve never tended to admire ‘a person’, just their outputs. I particularly admire people who push the boundaries of humanity; scientists, inventors, artists, athletes and entrepreneurs. These people tend to be engulfed by a fire that’s their passion. They live, sleep and dream it. And we get to bask in the warmth of their creations.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
I have two. First, “If it’s tidy inside the kitchen, it’s tidy outside the kitchen”, meaning that form and function are important whether people see them or not. This inspired me to innovate radical organisational structures – like transparent salary setting – to enable us to innovate for clients. The second is “a problem well defined is a problem half solved”, which is such a powerful concept but impossible to unpack in a few sentences.
And the worst?
“Raise money as fast as possible”. Raising capital from VCs is sometimes a good business signal, but it is not the pinnacle of success. It is over-glorified. We should be celebrating real value creation. Be very careful jumping on the investment treadmill. There’s some real truth in the story of the tortoise and hare.
Are you optimistic for the year ahead?
My default state is optimism. But it’s paramount that we examine all the failure points, and not just focus on the ‘happy path’. The advent of AI is the most important paradigm shift in human history. It has the promise to alleviate economic constraints and eradicate unnecessary suffering. But it has equally significant risks. Conscium believes that a conscious machine will help us navigate them, and before we get there, we need to build, test and deploy AI safely and responsibly.
We’re going for lunch in the city and you’re picking. Where are we going?
100 per cent my house. I’d ask my brother to cook. He’s an incredible chef – he took over my hotel chef job back in 1998. We love entertaining; I’m a feeder, and people never regret coming hungry.
And if we’re grabbing a drink after work?
It’s rare for me to drink, and it’s even more rare for me to stop working. When I tell people “I’ll meet you in the pub later”, they’ve learnt that it probably means “I’ll see you tomorrow”.
Where’s home during the week?
At the moment, it feels like I live on an aeroplane and London Heathrow is my second home. My first home is in Islington. I’ve lived on both sides of the river; they both have their virtues. I love London, it’s my favourite city.
And where might we find you at the weekend?
I’ll be running around Islington, burning the energy of my two little girls. And when they’re at one of their endless friends’ birthday parties, you’ll find me in a cafe working on what seems like an equally endless number of business ideas.
You’ve got a well-deserved two weeks off. Where are you going, and who with?
I’ve never been good at holidays. But I’ve learnt that it’s the highest quality time I get with my family. I like taking them to corners of the world that broaden their appreciation and understanding of humanity. It also gives me headspace and time to write – anything from how to deploy AI to the big questions facing us over the coming years.