DeepMind CEO seeks US standards body for frontier AI - Mobile World Live

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis called for the establishment of a new US-led regulatory framework to govern frontier AI, proposing a self-regulatory structure which could bypass political opposition.

In a post on X, Hassabis warned the breakneck pace of commercial and geopolitical competition is currently outstripping the industry’s understanding of the technology.

He noted the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is likely only a few short years away.

To address looming technical, biological, and cybersecurity risks without stifling innovation, Hassabis proposed creating a new US standards body.

He modelled it after a self-regulatory organisation like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), rather than a traditional government agency.

The structural choice comes amid heavy resistance to AI regulation from the tech industry and shifting policies from the Trump administration.

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The FINRA-style blueprint would be staffed by leading technical experts and open-source representatives but primarily funded by the industry to secure the massive compute resources needed for testing.

TechCrunch reported the proposed system would replace the current, highly criticised ad hoc government reviews previously used for models like Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s Sol.

Those reviews drew fire from industry onlookers for a distinct lack of technical expertise and opaque decision-making, according to the news outlet.

Under Hassabis’s framework, the independent body would define thresholds to classify models as Frontier-Class. Organisations behind them, dubbed Frontier Labs, would eventually be required to pass the independent assessments to deploy in the US market.

Hassabis stated assessments would check for advanced threats, deception, and guardrail bypass attempts. The standards body could also outsource specific evaluations to a growing ecosystem of independent, third-party AI safety groups.

He argued the approach is designed to keep up with AI’s acceleration, allowing the industry to safely steer toward an era of scientific abundance while addressing the Trump administration’s concern over state-mandated red tape.

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