Let's Regulate This AI Stuff?

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, has proposed a U.S.-based standards body for frontier AI modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Under the scheme, AI labs would submit models for review up to 30 days before release, and the organization would have the authority to evaluate them and coordinate an industry-wide slowdown if they were deemed too risky. Writing in a blog post, Hassabis argued the U.S. should lead the initiative "given its economic and technical standing." He said artificial general intelligence "is probably only a few short years away" and that "when we look back on this time in the decades to come, I think we will realize 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, including briefing the Trump administration, other AI labs, and European officials, and hopes to have the organization running before the end of the year. He also signed a statement last month calling for tougher protections against AI-aided bioweapons production. His comments follow a separate statement from top economists and tech figures, including Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, urging world leaders to take the looming economic impacts of AI seriously.

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