I’m 10 minutes early but Geoffrey Hinton is already waiting in the vestibule of Richmond Station, an elegant gastropub in Toronto. The computer scientist — an AI pioneer and Nobel physics laureate — chose this spot because he once had lunch here with then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

We are led through what feels like a trendy wine bar with industrial interiors to a bustling back room already filled with diners. Hinton takes off his aged green Google Scientist backpack from his former workplace, which he uses as a cushion to sit upright, due to a chronic back injury.

Owl-like, with white hair tucked under the frames of his glasses, he peers down at me and asks what I studied at university. “Because you explain things differently if people have a science degree.” I don’t. Trudeau, at least, had “an understanding of calculus”.