Google DeepMind’s Lila Ibrahim had no formal background in AI or research when she became the company’s first-ever chief operating officer in 2018. Her résumé did, however, include detasseling corn in Indiana as a 14-year-old for “$1-something” an hour—a punishing summer job that left her sweaty, cut up, and sure she wanted a different future.
“I grew up in really humble beginnings,” Ibrahim exclusively told Fortune, while adding that her parents were both immigrants, juggling careers in a new country with raising three children, including one with cerebral palsy. “It was happy but challenging in many ways financially.”
