Google moves AI safety team out of DeepMind lab

Google Alphabet Inc. ↘ 0.41% is transferring its roughly 90-member AI responsibility team out of Google DeepMind and into its Global Affairs division, which oversees lobbying and public policy, according to an internal email viewed by The Wall Street Journal News Corp ↗ 0.23%. The move, effective in early September, has raised concerns among employees that the team's independence and ability to identify risks in frontier AI models will be diminished.wsj

A Restructure Following Leadership Changes

The reorganization follows a broader shake-up at DeepMind that saw co-founder and chief executive Demis Hassabis step aside into a new chairman role. Some members of the AI responsibility team have raised concerns that the change in reporting structure will negatively affect their work, according to two current DeepMind employees cited by the Journal.moomoo+1

The ethics team has focused on assessing cutting-edge AI risks, including evaluating chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards during model testing, as well as examining the psychological effects of user interactions with AI chatbots. Employees worry that relocating the team away from the Gemini model development group could undermine its capacity to conduct independent research and flag emerging threats in advanced models.moomoo

Google Says Access Will Continue

Google has maintained that the team will retain access to DeepMind's resources, computing power, and personnel, while other groups responsible for model behavior, privacy, and security will remain within DeepMind. The restructuring is part of DeepMind's broader integration into Google's corporate structure, with related HR and policy teams also being reassigned away from the lab.moomoo

The move comes amid ongoing leadership changes and talent turnover at DeepMind, raising broader questions about how major AI labs balance the rapid development of powerful models against internal oversight mechanisms designed to catch potential harms before deployment.