Google’s Demis Hassabis says it’s time for a global AI watchdog

Demis Hassabis thinks the world needs an AI watchdog with the power to hit the brakes if frontier models become too dangerous.

Writing in a blog post, the Google DeepMind CEO and cofounder said the US should lead the initiative, arguing that the country is the best place to set global standards “given its economic and technical standing.” The organization, which could resemble existing regulators like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would be made up of leading independent experts and representatives from open-source communities and would have the authority to evaluate frontier models before they are released and coordinate an industry-wide slowdown if they were judged too risky to deploy.

The blog, titled “A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age,” argued that the need for global regulation is becoming more urgent as AI systems grow in sophistication. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) “is probably only a few short years away,” he said. “When we look back on this time in the decades to come, I think we will realise we were standing in the foothills of the singularity – nothing less than the dawning of a new age for humanity.”

According to Axios, Hassabis has spent months quietly building support for his proposal, including briefing the Trump administration, other AI labs, and European officials, and hopes to have the new organization up and running before the end of the year. He told Axios that “the noises I’ve been hearing [from the Trump administration] are very positive.”

The proposal is the latest effort by Hassabis and other industry leaders to establish a coherent framework for governing increasingly powerful AI systems, as well as mitigate the risks they may pose. As of yet, there is no global set of rules governing AI specifically, nor a comprehensive set of rules nationally in the US. Hassabis, the joint winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AI-based protein prediction, also signed his name to a statement calling for tougher protections against AI-aided bioweapons production last month.

Hassabis’ most recent comments follow a statement from top economists and tech titans — including Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt — urging world leaders to take the looming economic impacts of AI seriously.