{
  "id": 683289,
  "title": "Meet Google DeepMind’s chief AI exec—she started out detasseling corn in Indiana for around $1 an hour at 14: ‘I grew up in really humble beginnings’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/meet-google-deepminds-chief-ai-exec-she-started-out-detasseling-corn",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-12T13:35:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/12/google-deepmind-lila-ibrahim-corn-detasseling-first-chief-ai-officer-career-advice-humble-beginnings/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Lila Ibrahim, currently the chief operating officer and chief AI readiness officer at Google DeepMind, began her career with no formal background in AI or research. At 14 years old, she worked in the Indiana cornfields, detasseling for \"a couple of dollars an hour,\" a job that left her physically exhausted. Growing up in humble beginnings, Ibrahim was raised by immigrant parents who juggled careers in a new country while raising three children, including one with cerebral palsy. Her parents' careers provided a strong work ethic that steered her away from a career in agriculture. Instead, she pursued a research assistant position in a Purdue lab while still in high school, focusing on fruit fly DNA. This led to two decades of climbing the ranks at Intel, with stints in Santa Clara, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Before leaving Intel in 2010, Ibrahim held the position of chief of staff, managing 85,000 employees and had recently become a mother to twins. Despite the challenges and her unconventional path, Ibrahim has remained a senior executive at Google DeepMind, navigating through one of the company's biggest shakeups. Her outsider status and willingness to see opportunities where others didn't have played a significant role in her career trajectory.",
  "summary": "Google DeepMind’s Lila Ibrahim had no AI pedigree—she started out with a $1 cornfield job, immigrant parents, and a habit of taking risks others missed.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}