Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis Demands a Global AI Watchdog Operational Before Year-End

Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis is calling on the U.S. to establish a new AI watchdog with the power to screen the world's most advanced models — and coordinate an industry-wide slowdown if dangers mount. The Nobel laureate behind Gemini laid out the plan in a personal manifesto, "A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age." Hassabis is proposing an AI standards body modeled on FINRA, the private, industry-funded watchdog that polices Wall Street under SEC oversight. Frontier labs would initially voluntarily share models with the body for review up to 30 days before release, before becoming mandatory for U.S. market deployment. Today's AI-driven cyber risks are "warning shots" — within 18 months, biological and nuclear threats could live inside open-source models beyond any government's control. The Trump administration's improvised crackdown on Anthropic's Mythos and Fable models was "a bit of a wake-up call" — Anthropic spent 2½ weeks negotiating model releases with no established rules or playbook. Hassabis wants the new body operational "before year-end." He believes AGI is "probably only a few short years away."