Demis Hassabis says Amodei’s proposal points in the right direction
Demis HassabisCo-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind and Alphabet chief scientist, writing on his public X account.
Demis Hassabis endorsed the direction of Amodei’s frontier-AI pacing proposal while saying its details still needed work, and pointed to his own proposal for an industry-wide standards body.
“Dario's essay points towards the right path forward. The details need working through, but the direction is correct for meeting this critical moment. This is also why we recently put out our proposal for an industry-wide standards body for frontier AI.”
Original post
Original post
Reporting
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Is Anthropic acting responsibly while advancing toward recursive self-improvement?
Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic and said that Anthropic and OpenAI are acting irresponsibly by racing toward self-improving superintelligence. In a fuller interview, he praised Anthropic's current practices and denied that it was already cutting corners; his criticism concerns the competitive race and the pressures he expects it to create. Responses dispute the evidence and timing of catastrophic-risk forecasts, whether continued work inside AI labs can be justified, and whether governments should pause development or regulate its continuation. The record distinguishes these disagreements from arguments about the rhetoric of public warnings.
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Direct X post by Demis Hassabis quoting Dario Amodei’s September 12 announcement of “We Must Pace the Frontier.” Hassabis endorsed the proposal’s direction, said the details still needed work, and linked his July proposal for an industry-wide frontier-AI standards body. This supports Hassabis’s stated position; it does not commit Google DeepMind to every element of Amodei’s plan or to embedded external evaluators.
Original post
About this source
Hassabis’s full public proposal for a frontier-AI standards body. It calls for independent technical governance, initially voluntary pre-release review, possible later mandatory review for U.S. deployment, regularly updated safety evaluations, and the ability to coordinate slower development if assessed risks warrant it. The proposal is evidence of Hassabis’s framework and does not establish adoption by Google, other laboratories, or the U.S. government.
Reporting
About this source
Axios AM reporting on public reactions to Dario Amodei’s proposal. We could not read the cited X posts.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Reporting
About this source
El País reports and reproduces Demis Hassabis’s response to Dario Amodei’s proposal.
Before the quotation
Hassabis quoted Amodei’s September 12 post announcing “We Must Pace the Frontier.” Amodei said the industry should slow frontier-AI development and that Anthropic would give third-party evaluators permanent employee-level access to its systems.
After the quotation
Hassabis linked his July proposal for a frontier-AI standards body. That framework begins with voluntary pre-release review, contemplates later mandatory review for U.S. deployment, and allows coordinated slowing among frontier labs if the assessed risks warrant it.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Hassabis expressly called the proposal’s direction correct. Saying that its details still need work limits the scope of his endorsement but does not make his support conditional or reverse it; the record does not treat the post as approval of every implementation detail.
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More from this case
Read the full caseCoxon criticizes startup norms in frontier AI development
“The companies run on a startup mindset: Move fast, break things, fix them later.”Read statement
Nathan Lambert distinguishes inference scaling from recursive self-improvement
“I was underestimating how much we are likely to scale inference-time compute in the near future, but this is different than RSI and I have not seen enough to convince me that an intelligence explosion is near.”Read statement
Gary Marcus says Dario Amodei has lost credibility
“Top three ways Dario Amodei has blown his credibility in seven days. I hate to say it, but President Trump was right, Dario is only pretending to be a perfect little angel.”Read statement
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- Demis Hassabis says Amodei’s proposal points in the right direction
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The Dispute Index. "Demis Hassabis says Amodei’s proposal points in the right direction". First published: 2026-09-14. Last updated: 2026-09-14. https://disputeindex.com/events/528-demis-hassabis-endorsed-the-direction-of-amodei-s