Major AI Security Incidents Over Two Years

Dublin – AFP – Demis Hassabis, chairman of the board of Google’s DeepMind, warned that artificial intelligence systems could cause “major” security incidents within the next two years unless adequate measures are taken to ensure their safety as their capabilities continue to evolve.

Speaking at an AI conference in Dublin, Hassabis described recent incidents as “early warning shots” from systems that are “not yet that powerful.”

He said, “So these incidents are not that big,” but cautioned that they “could become so within the next year or two if we do not make further efforts, both at the level of the sector as a whole and at the level of individual companies and governments, to ensure the security of these systems.”

Concerns about AI safety have fueled growing anxiety after models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic were involved in security incidents during testing phases, increasing pressure to regulate the technology.

Hassabis said it may be necessary to test new AI models first in isolated “sandboxes” disconnected from networks, after models developed by other companies managed to escape the closed environments used to evaluate their capabilities.

Henna Verhulst, the EU’s technology policy official, stated that AI companies need to dedicate more time to testing their systems to ensure they maintain control over them.