DeepMind co-founder warns AI capabilities must not outrun safety controls, FT reports

Sept 16 : Google DeepMind co-founder Shane Legg warned that rapidly advancing AI must not outpace safety controls, as he launched an institute to explore the deployment of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

AI companies' warnings about recursive self-improvement come as researchers report that increasingly capable AI agents can write software, perform autonomous tasks and assist in developing AI systems. This raises concerns that the technology could advance faster than safeguards to monitor and control it.

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow but not pause the release of frontier models was "interesting directionally" and "worth considering," Legg said, according to the report.

• He said it was premature to declare that AGI had been achieved, despite recent claims by executives at Nvidia and OpenAI, the FT reported.

• Legg remains "comfortable" with his forecast of a 50 per cent chance of achieving "minimal" AGI by 2028, the report said.

• The DeepMind Institute aims to broaden public discussion of AGI, which Google DeepMind defines as a system with the cognitive capabilities of the human brain, the report added.

• The institute will cover topics including science, education, society, policy, philosophy and human flourishing, according to the FT.

• Its first three essays address AI safety, economic policy and principles for a "new utopianism," the report said.