{"id":113553,"date":"2026-07-21T16:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/113553\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:21:16","slug":"a-warning-and-a-call-for-action-on-ai-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/113553\/","title":{"rendered":"A warning and a call for action on AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The technologist, Demis Hassabis<\/a>, behind one of the leading Artificial Intelligence (AI)<\/a> labs, Google Deepmind has written an AI piece that is worthy of attention.<\/p>\n

He helps us understand the significance of this AI moment by highlighting that this technology (Artificial General Intelligence) \u201ccannot be compared to standard technological breakthroughs, not even ones as consequential as the internet or mobile – it is much more akin to the discovery of electricity or fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think this description of what is upon helps all of us appreciate the fact that we are on uncharted territory which requires unconventional methods to withstand it.<\/p>\n

He goes to highlight a major risk by highlighting that \u201curgent action\u201d is needed as we get closer to point where this technology will take on a more advanced nature.<\/p>\n

What is concerning however is that in his view there\u2019s no action being taken to prepare the world for what is coming. Instead he says \u201cwe are locked in an extremely intense, multilayered commercial and geopolitical race\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, I see something similar in South Africa.<\/p>\n

After it was discovered that the process followed was flawed those in leadership positions have gone underground. <\/p>\n

Even if there\u2019s some action by academics in the public arena there\u2019s silence about this important matter. <\/p>\n

This is concerning, especially after we\u2019ve observed that there\u2019s private interests that may be influencing law makers. Hassabis makes important an recommendation to address this state of lull.<\/p>\n

He recommends a development of\u00a0 a \u201cnew Standards Body modelled on a federally overseen public-private partnership or self-regulatory organisation, much like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), with a board that includes independent leading technical experts and open-source representatives\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He goes on to say that such a regulatory body ought to be \u201cresponsible for developing assessment protocols and working with appropriate federal agencies and the US National Labs to conduct testing in areas relevant to national security\u201d.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

He indicates that such a \u201cmodel would qualify as \u2018Frontier-class\u2019 if it meets certain thresholds on a set of benchmarks determined by the Standards Body and regularly updated to keep pace with evolving AI capabilities.<\/p>\n

He writes that those \u201corganisations with \u2018Frontier Models\u2019 as defined by those benchmarks would be deemed \u2018Frontier Labs\u2019, and be encouraged to adopt best practices, such as publishing model cards with technical details, maintaining strong internal cybersecurity, vetting key personnel, and providing sufficient resourcing for safety and security research, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only limitation I noted in his recommendations is that such an approach be adopted in the US. It\u2019s an intervention that should be adopted across the world.<\/p>\n

Countries can similar steps independently and work collaboratively with an entity at a global level. He recommends that \u201cFrontier Labs would voluntarily share models with the Standards Body for review up to 30 days before release. <\/p>\n

Once the assessment protocol is shown to be effective and robust, formalisation could quickly follow, meaning that Frontier Models would be required to pass it to be deployed in the US market.<\/p>\n

Labs would also work with the Standards Body to address any critical post-release vulnerabilities.\u201d This approach would probably have to be taken at a local level as well. <\/p>\n

This requires some form of action sooner rather than later to be ready to form part of such a governance structure.<\/p>\n

Due to the leadership of the US in AI he recommends a more US focused for however there\u2019s nothing stopping the global community to create their governance structures to work together with globally established entities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My hope is that those who are leading the need for urgency on these matters.<\/p>\n

Hassabis concludes by saying \u201c we must use this precious window before AGI arrives to shape this technology for the benefit of all humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an attitude that should be adopted by local leaders before it\u2019s too late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wesley Diphoko is the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine and a Technology Analyst.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0Business Report<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0X<\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0for the latest Business and tech news.<\/p>\n

BUSINESS REPORT\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The technologist, Demis Hassabis, behind one of the leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs, Google Deepmind has written an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6744,24,3013,25,58183,7718,1148,57477,54778,11264,42239,20205,7543,58182,7425,57476,11936,9036,35213,156,57475,6326],"class_list":["post-113553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agi","tag-agi","tag-ai","tag-artificial-general-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business-report","tag-demis-hassabis","tag-facebook","tag-fastcompany","tag-financial-industry-regulatory-authority","tag-frontier","tag-frontier-labs","tag-frontier-models","tag-google-deepmind","tag-https-x-com-busrep","tag-linkedin","tag-national-labs","tag-piece","tag-south-africa","tag-technologist","tag-us","tag-wesley-diphoko","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}