Communicator Spotlight: Amanda Carl Pratt of Google DeepMind

• "When you think of DeepMind, you think of AlphaFold, and you think of [CEO] Demis [Hassabis] and the Nobel that he recently won in chemistry," she told Axios. "We're really focused on maintaining a lead there."
• "And then another priority for us is helping people understand AGI [artificial general intelligence] — So what it is, why it matters, why we're doing it and how we can do it responsibly."

What she's saying: "What keeps me up at night is a lot of the hype that I'm seeing in the industry," says Pratt.

• "I think with a technology that's so transformational and has so much potential to do good, we have to get it right. And I don't think overselling or over hyping the technology does anyone any good. So we're incredibly diligent about making sure that anything we talk about is really pragmatic, that we understand both the risks and the benefits."

Catch up quick: Pratt started her career at Tierney, a PR and creative agency. From there, she joined IBM, where she supported communications for the company's research division, including the launch of its commercial quantum computing program

• Pratt joined Google DeepMind in 2022 and helped build the executive and policy communications functions.

State of play: She oversees a global team of 15 who manage external communications across Google DeepMind's AGI, responsibility and policy areas, executive communications, social media and writing.

Who she's watching: All of the AI competitors, the stories they are telling and outlets they are telling them in.

• She's also watching where the IBM alums land.
• "There are so many IBM communicators, and they end up all over the place," she says. "I'm always interested to see where they've taken it, how their roles have expanded and the things that they've done. ... I find that to be really helpful and introspective for me."

What's next: The various new channels for storytelling.

• "The media landscape is transforming every day. People talk a lot about traditional media versus new media, but I think of it as just channels to tell our story. It's just about finding different ways to get eyeballs on your news," Pratt says.
• "People are finding podcasts to be the better place to put executives to express themselves or get their personality out there a bit more. ... I also think looking at newsletter coverage is important too. Before it was about just getting in an outlet, but now it's also about getting in the newsletter as well."

• "A lot of the news we release, particularly on the product side, we're doing through social media channels and leveraging different leaders who can talk about what we have coming out and why it's so compelling," she added.

Best career advice came from Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM: Growth and comfort do not coexist.

• "It's okay to feel uncomfortable when you take that next step. It's okay to feel nervous. It's okay to have anxiety. It's okay to question whether or not this is the right role for you or if you're the right person. But in the midst of all that questioning, you still have have to take the step. And if you take the step, nine times out of 10, I think there's going to be growth and opportunity on the other side."

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