Months before moving away from his role as CEO of Google DeepMind, Demis Hassabis held discussions with Trump administration officials and leaders of other AI labs about forming a new independent industry safety body. According to a report by Wall Street Journal, people familiar to the matter revealed that Hassabis has been advancing the idea of an organization that would codify safety guardrails and best practices for developing artificial general intelligence (AGI). He has likened the proposed entity to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a nongovernmental watchdog for nuclear energy.
Demis Hassabis’ meeting with US officials
The report further adds that earlier this summer, Hassabis met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump tech adviser Michael Kratsios to preview aspects of his plan. He later published an essay on X calling for a U.S.-led, industry-funded standards body to assess AI models, similar to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Under his proposal, federal agencies and national laboratories would work with AI companies to test models relevant to national security and designate “frontier-class” systems.The world’s largest AI labs are racing toward AGI, but leaders including Hassabis, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have voiced concerns about risks. Altman recently proposed a U.S.-led international forum, while Anthropic endorsed a global agreement to slow development and verify compliance. Hassabis’s efforts represent some of the most concrete steps by a leading lab official to establish safety mechanisms.
Leadership transition at Google
Last week, Google announced a management shake-up at DeepMind, with Hassabis stepping down as CEO and becoming chairman of DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet. In a memo, he wrote: “I’ve been working towards AGI my whole life and now, like many of you, I feel it is close at hand… I’ve decided that now is the right time to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities.” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Hassabis’s new role allows him to focus fully on shaping the future of AGI.Critics argue voluntary and self-regulatory efforts are insufficient to address AI’s security and economic risks. Lawmakers are calling for mandatory model reviews and stronger government oversight. The Trump administration has increased scrutiny of AI’s security risks but continues to keep evaluations voluntary, leaving the debate over regulation unresolved as AGI development accelerates.
