Demis Hassabis seeks independent oversight for frontier AI models
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Demis Hassabis is advocating an independently governed body to test and set safety standards for the most powerful AI systems.
London, United Kingdom. Sir Demis Hassabis, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and son of a Greek Cypriot father from Famagusta, is using his move away from the day-to-day running of Google DeepMind to advocate independent oversight of the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence models.
Proposal for AI oversight
Hassabis discussed the proposal with leaders of other AI laboratories, government officials and European policymakers in the weeks before relinquishing his chief executive role, according to people familiar with the talks.
In discussions with peers, he compared the body’s eventual international role to that of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN-linked watchdog established to promote cooperation and safeguards in the nuclear field.
His aim is to create an industry-funded but independently governed organisation that would test frontier AI models before their release, develop common safety standards and intervene if systems displayed dangerous capabilities.
Career focus
The proposal brings together two strands that have defined Hassabis’ career: the race to build increasingly intelligent machines and his long-standing concern about what could happen if their capabilities advance faster than society’s ability to control them.
Cypriot heritage
Hassabis was born in London in 1976 to a Greek Cypriot father, Costas, whose family came from Famagusta, and a Chinese Singaporean mother, Angela.
“It makes me happy that Cypriots are proud of me,” Hassabis said.
“I have a Greek way of thinking,” he said, adding that what Hellenism has contributed to the Western world since the classical period “is a big part of who I am”.
Early years
Raised in north London, Hassabis showed an early interest in games and strategy. He learnt chess at the age of four and became one of the world’s leading junior players, at one point ranking second globally in his age group.
His chess winnings paid for his first computer, a ZX Spectrum, when he was eight. With neither parent working in technology, he taught himself programming from books.
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