OpenAI said it is working with Anthropic and Google on plans for a potential self-regulatory body for the artificial intelligence industry, based on a proposal from Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis.
Hassabis had proposed creating an organisation in the United States that would test the most advanced AI systems before they are made available to the public. He suggested that the initiative would require substantial funding, most of which would likely come from the industry, to attract technical experts and provide computing resources for large-scale testing.
However, there is currently no broad agreement among AI companies and industry leaders on how such a system should operate.
Aiden Gomez, co-founder and CEO of Canadian AI company Cohere, recently accused leading US AI companies of attempting to form a “cartel” under the banner of AI safety.
“AI needs guardrails,” Gomez said in a blog post, arguing that the central questions involve who establishes those rules, who participates in the process and whose interests they serve.
Concerns over AI safety have intensified in recent weeks, with several former employees of major AI companies raising alarms about the potential risks associated with rapidly advancing technology.
Jacob Coxon recently resigned from Anthropic, warning that AI companies were taking significant risks. Coxon had previously worked at OpenAI.
Former Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai also expressed concerns about the potential consequences of increasingly powerful AI systems.
“I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome,” Chughtai said in a social media post.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has separately called for a slowdown in the pace of AI development. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Hassabis have also expressed support for slowing aspects of AI development.
US President Donald Trump, however, has dismissed warnings about AI risks as “hoaxes”.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also challenged predictions that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. Speaking at a conference in Los Angeles, Huang described such predictions as alarming and said making them was irresponsible.
Huang said claims that AI could destroy humanity were not supported by scientific evidence.
