In 1983 I joined Sinclair Research Ltd in Cambridge (UK) as a software engineer where I contributed to the Sinclair QL and Sinclair Spectrum 128 computers. The chairman, Sir Clive Sinclair, believed that the UK needed something to counter the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer programme [a 10-year initiative by Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry to develop massively parallel computer systems optimised for logical deduction as a platform on which to build (what is now called) AGI]. So he established an SRL "skunkworks" lab called MetaLab in order to do such things. I was one of the first two people from SRL's Willis Road computer lab to move to MetaLab, and in Dec 1984/Jan 1985 I was tasked with "designing some AI software", i.e. (what we would now call) an AGI. So I started with a blank sheet of paper, and have been designing my own (now neurosymbolic) AGI architecture ever since. In June 1985, I was joined at SRL by Aubrey de Grey, and we worked on AI together. In 1986, Aubrey and I formed our own AI company, Man-Made Minions Ltd. Aubrey later became interested in the science of ageing, and ultimately established the SENS longevity research foundation, followed by the LEV longevity research foundation, in California; so, ageing research became Aubrey's thing, and AGI research remained my thing. In 2018, I reconstituted Man-Made Minions as the (now one-man) AGI non-profit BigMother.AI CIC [https://bigmother.ai]. In 2022, I co-founded Cambridge AI Social (now also a CIC) which has since launched the CAIS Lecture series of "AI + beer & pizza" events [https://www.cambridgeaisocial.org].