DeepMind's Demis Hassabis pushes for US-led AI standards body as AGI looms within years

DeepMind CEO calls for an independent standards body to regulate frontier AI

In an X post on Tuesday morning, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called for the creation of a new regulatory body to oversee frontier model releases. Titled "A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age," the post makes the case for a "standards body" modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which could test frontier models and develop best practices for their release. "Initially, Frontier Labs would voluntarily share models with the Standards Body for review up to 30 days before release," the post reads. "Once the assessment protocol is shown to be effective and robust, formalisation could quickly follow, meaning that Frontier Models would be required to pass it to be deployed in the US market. Labs would also work with the Standards Body to address any critical post-release vulnerabilities." The proposed system would build on the ad hoc reviews performed by the US government on Anthropic's Mythos and OpenAI's Sol. Those reviews drew significant criticism for lack of technical expertise and opaque decision-making as to when a model could be released. Under Hassabis's proposed regulator, those decisions could be handed off to a new organization, backed by the US government but funded by the AI industry and operated independently. The prospect of AI regulation remains controversial for both the tech industry and the Trump Administration. Most recently, White House AI advisor and a16z general partner Sriram Krishnan discounted the possibility of an AI regulator within the executive branch, saying "there will not be an FDA for AI." Establishing the standards body as a self-regulatory organization like FINRA could be a way to address those concerns. Hassabis envisions the regulator being staffed by open-source representatives and technical experts from within the industry, along with the financial backing from AI labs that would be necessary to retain them. They could even outsource some evaluations to the growing pool of AI safety groups who would be able to specialize in specific risks. "The strength of this approach is it would be technically focused, while at the same time supporting innovation and incentivising responsible behaviour," Hassabis argues. "It is designed to keep up with the field's acceleration and adapt to the biggest risks as they are identified, and could be ratcheted up if the seriousness of the situation demands."

Google's Demis Hassabis says it's time for a global AI watchdog -- led by the US

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 placed 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 organisation 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.

DeepMind bigbrain calls for America to set AI standards before it's too late

Google DeepMind boss Demis Hassabis is calling for the US to establish a robust frontier AI model review process because, according to him, artificial general intelligence (AGI) "is probably only a few short years away" and we've got to figure it out before it's too late. That "probably" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in Hassabis' lengthy, early-morning Tuesday post on X. Like commercially viable fusion power and practical fault-tolerant quantum computing, AGI seems perpetually asymptotic to the present moment, with needed technological advancements always the next step in the process. No amount of hyperbole - not even a Nobel laureate with skin in the game predicting an impact "perhaps 10x of the Industrial Revolution at 10x the speed" - makes the AGI timetable any more certain. Recall that Hassabis predicted in the beginning of 2025 that human trials of AI-designed drugs would come that year, and that still hasn't happened either. Regardless of the questionable prognostications, the main argument in Hassabis' essay - that we need to establish international standards for classifying AI safety and risk - is worth serious discussion, and his arguments for it are sensible. "I'm confident that mitigating the technical risks related to AI is a challenge we can collectively address, but only if we give ourselves the time and space to get this next crucial step right," Hassabis said. "Currently, as a field and as a wider society, we aren't doing that." He's got that right, at least. Hassabis proposes that the US ought to create a new standards body to evaluate frontier AI models in the same vein as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the private, industry-funded self-regulatory organization that oversees US broker-dealers under SEC supervision and is charged with protecting investors and safeguarding market integrity. The DeepMind CEO's vision for an AI industry regulatory authority would begin with a board of tech experts and open-source representatives funded by the AI industry itself - a move that would "attract world-class technical talent" and ensure the body had enough hardware to run its various frontier model tests. FINRA is funded in a similar manner by the industry it purports to regulate, which has opened the door to criticism that it's basically a toothless insiders' club. Funding and conflict-of-interest concerns aside, the main task of the AI standards body Hassabis proposed would be to establish an assessment protocol for frontier AI models, and to determine what qualifies as a frontier model based on benchmarks it would also be responsible for setting. "Organisations with 'Frontier Models' as defined by those benchmarks would be deemed 'Frontier Labs', and be encouraged to adopt best practices, such as publishing model cards with technical details, maintaining strong internal cybersecurity, vetting key personnel, and providing sufficient resourcing for safety and security research, and more," Hassabis explained. Hassabis proposed that submitting to such evaluations would be voluntary for frontier labs, at least at first - the model he proposes would give labs the option to voluntarily submit models for review 30 days before release until whatever assessment protocol the group makes up proves to be effective. He further proposes that frontier labs should be allowed to help the standards body develop those benchmarks - again, at least for a while until it gets up to speed. "Eventually the Standards Body should build up the technical capacity to create its own held-out tests independent of the Labs to prevent overfitting." The hope is that this US-led effort would eventually lead to international frontier AI assessment standards, though whether the international community would stomach another imposition of US rules on the global stage is questionable at this point. The Trump administration has already proposed something similar for testing frontier AI models before their broader release. President Trump signed an executive order in early June directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology, alongside several other federal agencies, to develop a voluntary framework that would allow the government to review covered frontier models for up to 30 days before they are shared with select trusted partners. The effort is primarily aimed at evaluating advanced cybersecurity capabilities, and the order also calls for the development of classified benchmarks for assessing frontier AI models. Some critics argued the framework could give the government undue influence over which companies receive early access to frontier models, pointing to provisions governing collaboration with "select trusted partners." An independent standards body could avoid some of those concerns. Given concerns that financial industry pressure affects the outcome of FINRA work, however, even an independent AI standards body may not be enough to prevent financial influence from skewing its decisions. "The future is not yet written," Hassabis concluded in his note. "We must use this precious window before AGI arrives to shape this technology for the benefit of all humanity." Whether or not AGI is actually coming, the AI industry definitely needs someone to kick it into shape. The question of who can do it fairly - the industry itself or the government - isn't one that's been adequately answered yet. ®

DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis calls for US-led body to test 'frontier' AI models

Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis has called for the creation of a US-led standards body to test new "frontier-class" AI models for national security threats, arguing that "urgent action" from international regulators is needed to address the risks posed by the rapidly advancing technology. The warning from Hassabis, a Nobel laureate who leads Google's AI efforts, follows the White House's abrupt export ban on Anthropic's most advanced models last month, alongside a fresh wave of warnings about the potential for AI to disrupt the global economy and financial system. The intervention is the most detailed proposal yet for AI regulation from Google, which is vying for AI leadership with Anthropic and OpenAI. "We've already seen the challenges frontier models pose for cybersecurity, and other threats including nuclear and bio risks may soon emerge as capabilities continue to advance," Hassabis wrote in an essay published on social media app X on Tuesday. "The rapid progress we're seeing in AI requires a new approach to testing frontier AI model capabilities that is dynamic, adaptable, and rigorous. The US is well positioned, given its economic and technical standing, to take the first step in developing such a framework." Hassabis proposes that the new body could be modelled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), the US-based self-regulatory organisation that oversees capital markets to protect investors. AI models designated as "frontier-class" -- including both open and closed systems developed anywhere -- would be vetted. He suggested the body should also stress-test AI models' safety guardrails. A warning from Amazon that guardrails on Anthropic's powerful Mythos model could be bypassed helped to prompt the US ban. "This US-initiated effort would provide a strong starting point for creating shared international standards on Frontier AI," Hassabis said, adding that it should then "spur the international community to reach a consensus" on AI regulation. Hassabis's move follows escalating calls by Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei for stronger AI regulations, including allowing the government to block deployment of technology that is deemed unsafe. Last month, OpenAI also agreed to stagger the release of its latest model, GPT-5.6, following requests from the US government. Tech industry executives at the G7 meeting last month urged world leaders to take a united front on AI safety and security, after the US government's action against Anthropic prompted fears in Europe and Asia that they could be cut off from a vital engine of economic growth and military advantage. Discussion of AI regulation in the US has also intensified as Chinese capabilities improve. The latest open models from Z.ai and DeepSeek are narrowing the gap with their US rivals. Beyond the regulatory proposals, Hassabis' essay painted an optimistic future for AI, which he said could yield huge advances in medicine and energy. Artificial general intelligence that can match all the capabilities of the human brain was "probably only a few short years away", he added, offering a "precious window" for society to act. "The magnitude of this technology's impact will be unprecedented, perhaps 10x of the Industrial Revolution at 10x the speed," he wrote. "If you stop to think about it, we've essentially found a way to make sand think. It's miraculous."

Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis calls for U.S. to spearhead AI standards body

The chief of Google's AI division has called for the U.S. to spearhead a standards body that will oversee new AI models and assess national security risks including cybersecurity and biological threats. Google DeepMind boss Demis Hassabis, a Nobel laureate, said in an article posted on X on Tuesday that "urgent action" was needed to address risks associated with artificial general intelligence (AGI) -- the point at which AI matches or surpasses human intelligence. "We've already seen the challenges frontier models pose for cybersecurity, and other threats including nuclear and bio risks may soon emerge as capabilities continue to advance," he said. Hassabis proposed a U.S.-led public-private partnership overseen by the federal government as a solution to helping tackle these threats. The White House, the State Department and the Department of Commerce have been approached for comment. The comments come a month on from sources telling CNBC that Hassabis, alongside Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called for a U.S.-led coalition to shape rules and standards around AI at a G7 meeting with tech leaders and heads of state that included President Donald Trump. OpenAI's Sam Altman also called for a similar body in an article published by the Financial Times earlier this month.

Hassabis wants a FINRA-style referee for frontier AI

Demis Hassabis, the Nobel laureate behind Google's AI, says AGI is "a few short years away" and the world is not ready. His fix, laid out in a manifesto on Tuesday: a US-led Standards Body modelled on Wall Street's FINRA, funded by the labs, that vets frontier models before release and can coordinate an industry-wide slowdown if they get too dangerous. The man behind Google's AI thinks the world needs a referee. And he has drafted the rules. Demis Hassabis wants a US-led watchdog that vets frontier models before release. It is modelled on Wall Street's policeman, and it could slow the whole industry down. Demis Hassabis does not usually sound the alarm. On Tuesday he did. The Google DeepMind chief and Nobel laureate published a manifesto on X. In it, he argues that artificial general intelligence is "probably only a few short years away". The world, he says, is not ready. He calls this a "precious window" before AGI arrives, and it is closing. His fix is unusually concrete. He wants the US to build a new AI Standards Body. His template is FINRA, the industry-funded watchdog that polices Wall Street under government oversight. A referee for the frontier The body would be a public-private partnership, funded mostly by the labs themselves. Its board would be stacked with independent experts, Turing Award winners among them, plus open-source and government voices. Its job is to test the most powerful models before they ship. At first, labs would hand their systems over voluntarily, up to 30 days before release. The tests would probe the dangerous stuff: cyber-attack skill, biological and nuclear risk, and signs of deception. Once the regime works, it would harden. A "Frontier-class" model would have to pass before it could reach the US market. The body would set the benchmarks and refresh them each quarter. The rules would apply to any such model, open or closed, wherever it is built. Startups and academics stay exempt. The power to pull the handbrake The most striking part is the brake. Hassabis says the body could be "ratcheted up" as risks grow. That includes "coordinating a slowdown in development among the Frontier Labs if deemed necessary". It is a remarkable thing for a lab boss to propose. He is asking for a mechanism to make his own industry stop. He told Axios, which broke the plan, that today's cyber-risks are only "warning shots". Within 18 months, he warned, far graver bio and nuclear tools could emerge. They could sit inside open-source models no government can recall. His timeline is aggressive. He wants the body running before year-end. He says he has briefed the Trump administration, rival labs, and European officials for months. The "noises", he said, are "very positive". Why now The timing is not an accident. Last month, the Trump administration froze Anthropic's most powerful models overnight with an export order. Weeks of tense negotiation followed, with no rulebook. Hassabis called that "a bit of a wake-up call". OpenAI, wary of the same fate, held back GPT-5.6 until the government signed off. He is not alone in wanting rules. He and Anthropic's Dario Amodei called for a US-led coalition at the G7. Amodei wants an FAA-style agency that can block unsafe models. The lab chiefs now agree Washington should regulate them. They differ mainly on who holds the gavel. Hassabis frames all of this in near-cosmic terms. AGI, he writes, is less like the internet than like fire or electricity. "We've essentially found a way to make sand think. It's miraculous." The harder question is the one his plan cannot answer. Can a body funded by the labs, and watching for deception in the models they profit from, ever be the one to say stop?

Exclusive: Google's Hassabis calls for U.S.-led global AI watchdog

Why it matters: In an exclusive interview with Axios, Hassabis said the time has come for a more "systematic" approach to AI regulation -- funded by the industry, staffed by world-class technical experts, and answerable to the U.S. government. Today's AI-driven cyber risks are "warning shots," Hassabis told us from his London base. Within 18 months, he said, those capabilities -- plus far graver biological and nuclear threats -- could live inside open-source models beyond any government's control. * Hassabis emphasized to us that risks will come from the major labs' more powerful future proprietary models, not just open-source models. * "What we collectively do now," he writes in his manifesto, "will determine how the next phase of civilization unfolds." Behind the scenes: Hassabis has spent months quietly building support for the plan, briefing the Trump administration, fellow lab leaders and European officials before going public. * "The noises I've been hearing are very positive," he said of his talks with the administration, which had embraced a laissez-faire approach to AI regulation prior to the Mythos scare. * Hassabis, a scientist who commands rare respect across AI's warring camps, says the other major lab leaders agree at a high level: "This is where the industry needs to go." * His timeline is aggressive. "Months," Hassabis said, ideally with the new body operational "before year-end." How it works: Hassabis is proposing an AI standards body modeled on FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), the private, industry-funded watchdog that polices Wall Street under SEC oversight. * Frontier labs would initially share their models with the body voluntarily, up to 30 days before release, for safety testing that probes dangerous cyber, biological and "deception" capabilities. * Once the testing regime proves "effective and robust," Hassabis writes, formalization "could quickly follow." That means frontier models would be required to pass before they could be deployed in the U.S. market. * Hassabis envisions a majority-independent board stacked with Turing Award winners and other credentialed experts, alongside industry, government and open-source representatives. The intrigue: The rules would apply to all frontier-class models, "no matter their country of origin or whether they are open or closed" -- with the qualifying benchmarks regularly updated as capabilities evolve. * Hassabis predicts the "frontier" designation would carry cachet: being tested means you matter. "I think that's a pretty nice, prestige kind of asset to have," he told us. The big picture: The Trump administration's improvised crackdown on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models last month was "a bit of a wake-up call," Hassabis said -- proof Washington needs something sturdier than ad hoc directives. * Anthropic saw its most powerful models frozen overnight by an export-control order, then spent 2½ weeks negotiating their release with no established rules, protocol or playbook. * OpenAI, hoping to avoid the same fate, agreed to restrict GPT-5.6 to government-vetted partners at launch. It was released publicly last week after negotiations and testing with the Commerce Department. Between the lines: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has issued his own call for binding regulation, envisioning an FAA-style agency with the power to block unsafe models. * The lab chiefs behind Gemini and Claude now agree Washington should regulate them, differing mainly on who holds the authority. The bottom line: Hassabis believes AGI -- a system with all the cognitive powers of the human brain -- is "probably only a few short years away," and that we're standing in "the foothills of the singularity." * "We've essentially found a way to make sand think," he writes. "It's miraculous."

Demis Hassabis calls for U.S.-led AI standards body like FINRA

Google $GOOGL DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called Tuesday for the U.S. to establish an AI standards body modeled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the private, industry-funded watchdog that polices Wall Street under Securities and Exchange Commission oversight. Hassabis, a Nobel laureate, laid out the plan in an essay he published Tuesday on X $TWTR under the title "A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age." He said "urgent action" was needed to address risks tied to artificial general intelligence, which he described as probably only a few short years away. "We've already seen the challenges frontier models pose for cybersecurity, and other threats including nuclear and bio risks may soon emerge as capabilities continue to advance," he wrote. The proposed body would be structured as a federally overseen public-private partnership with a board composed of independent technical experts, open-source representatives, and government officials, according to CNBC. Hassabis said industry would likely foot the bill, and that the organization would need considerable financial backing to hire top-tier technical staff and run the compute-intensive evaluations required for large-scale model testing. Initially, frontier labs would submit their models to the body ahead of release -- with a window of up to 30 days -- on a voluntary basis. After the regime demonstrated it was working, Hassabis envisions compliance becoming a prerequisite for any model to go live for American users. According to Axios, the framework would cover every frontier-class model -- domestic or foreign, proprietary or open-weight -- with eligibility thresholds updated as capabilities grow. Hassabis said he wants the body operational before year-end. Testing would probe for dangerous cyber, biological, and deception capabilities, Hassabis said. Specific checks could include looking for attempts to bypass safety guardrails and verifying that AI-generated images carry digital watermarks. Hassabis told Axios that the administration's handling of Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models last month -- which he called "a bit of a wake-up call" -- showed that Washington requires a formal governance structure rather than improvised, case-by-case responses. He said the conversations he has had with the administration have been positive. The call comes roughly a month after Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei jointly urged world leaders at a closed-door G7 session in Évian-les-Bains, France, to back a U.S.-led AI governance framework. That gathering included President Donald Trump and other G7 heads of state, along with executives from several major technology companies. No concrete commitments emerged from that meeting. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has separately called for a similar international standards body, according to CNBC. Hassabis said that other major lab leaders agree at a high level that the industry needs to move in this direction, though Anthropic's Dario Amodei has called for a distinct FAA-style agency with the power to block unsafe models outright.

Google DeepMind Chief Calls for US-Led Body to Test Frontier AI Models | PYMNTS.com

The proposal would cover frontier models developed in the U.S. and abroad, including open and closed systems, the Financial Times reported Tuesday (July 14). The body would test dangerous capabilities, cybersecurity risks and whether model safeguards can be bypassed. Artificial general intelligence capable of matching the human brain across a broad range of tasks is "probably only a few short years away," leaving society a "precious window" to establish oversight, Hassabis said, per the report. Hassabis proposed modeling the organization on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the self-regulatory organization overseeing U.S. securities firms, the report said. Hassabis said a U.S.-initiated system could become the foundation for international standards as governments confront risks from increasingly capable systems, according to the report. The framework could give AI companies a common testing process while avoiding a separate licensing regime for every model. Independent testers could compare models against common thresholds and update tests as new capabilities emerge. The White House has already moved toward pre-release oversight. A June executive order sought voluntary access to covered frontier models for up to 30 days before release to test advanced cyber capabilities. Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI previously agreed to provide models for federal national security testing. The debate intensified after the U.S. restricted access to Anthropic's Mythos models over concerns that safety controls could be bypassed. Anthropic complied while arguing that the identified jailbreak did not justify a broad recall. Congress is considering additional requirements. A House bill introduced in June would require frontier developers to report dangerous capabilities, breaches and safety incidents within seven days of discovery. Hassabis' proposal reflects a shift from debating whether frontier AI needs oversight to deciding who conducts the tests, which models qualify and whether regulators can delay deployment. For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.