A Spymaster Sheikh Controls a $1.5 Trillion Fortune. They Want To Use It To Dominate AI

Sometime in the mid-2000s, a refrigerator-sized box in Abu Dhabi was thought to be the world’s largest chess player. Its name is Hydra, and it’s a tiny super-computer—a cabinet full of industrial-grade processors and specially designed chips, strung together with fiber optic cables and jacked into the internet. At a time when chess was still the main gladiator. an arena for competition between humans and AI, Hydra and exploits for a while are legends. The New Yorker published a contemplative 5,000-word feature on emerging creativity; WIRED declares Hydra “scary”; and chess publications covered their victories with the violence of wrestling commentary. Hydra, they wrote, is a “monster machine” that “slowly strangled” human grand masters. True to form as a monster, Hydra is also isolated and strange. Another state-of-the-art chess engine at the time – the Hydra competitor – ran on regular PCs and was available for anyone to download. But the cluster power of 32 Hydra processors can be used by only one person at a time. And by the summer of 2005, even members of the Hydra development team were struggling to get their turn with their creation. That’s because the team’s patron—a 36-year-old Emirati man who later hired them and put money into the hard-boiled Hydra Hardware—was too busy to reap the rewards. In an online chess forum in 2005, Austrian Hydra’s chief architect, Chrilly Donninger, described this philanthropist as the greatest “computer chess freak” alive. “Sponsors,” he wrote, “like to play day and night with Hydra.” Under the username zor_champ, the Emirati sponsor will enter an online chess tournament and, with Hydra, play as a human-computer team. More often than not, they will beat the competition. “He loved the power of man and machine,” said one engineer. “He likes to win.” Eventually Hydra was outclassed by other chess computers and shut down in the late 2000s. But zor_champ continues to be one of the most powerful and least understood people in the world. His real name is Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al Nahyan. A bearded, lanky figure who is almost never seen without sunglasses, Tahnoun is the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser – the intelligence chief of one of the world’s wealthiest and most surveilled minors. nations. He is also the younger brother of the country’s autocratic president, Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan. But perhaps most importantly, and most strangely for a spymaster, Tahnoun has formal control over much of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth. Bloomberg News reported last year that he directly oversees a $1.5 trillion empire—more cash than anyone on the planet. – the third Bond villain. Among his many, many business interests, he heads a large tech conglomerate called G42 (a reference to the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where “42” is the super-computer’s answer to the question “life, the universe.” , and everything.) .G42 has a hand in everything from AI research to biotechnology-with a specialty in hacking and state-sponsored technology.He wears sunglasses even in the gym because he’s sensitive to it light, and he surrounds himself with UFC champions and mixed martial arts fighters. from loyal gatekeepers can get a chance to talk to people only after a lap with the sheikh around the private velodrome. He has been known to spend hours in the flotation room, and has flew health guru Peter Attia to the UAE to give guidance on longevity. According to the businessman present at the discussion, Tahnoun even inspired Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful crown prince of Saudi Arabia, to cut down on fast food and join him in his efforts to live up to 150 years.

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