Demis Hassabis Calls for US‑Led Frontier AI Standards Body

DeepMind CEO and 2024 Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis warned that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could arrive within a few years and that its impact might be ten times larger and faster than the Industrial Revolution. He proposed that the United States establish a public‑private standards body, modelled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), to evaluate “frontier” AI models before they are released to the market. The body would develop technical evaluation protocols, conduct security tests for cyber, biological and nuclear risks, and require developers to submit models up to 30 days before public release. The scheme would start as a voluntary process and become mandatory once proven effective. Funding would come primarily from the AI industry, and the governing board would include independent technical experts and open‑source community representatives. Hassabis said the agency could also coordinate a slowdown of development if a model posed severe threats. The proposal aligns with President Trump’s executive order on voluntary AI model reviews and has received public backing from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other tech leaders. It aims to create a unified testing framework that could serve as a basis for international standards on advanced AI safety.