Recent hacking incidents carried out by AI agents are "early warning shots", and the world could soon face major incidents if systems are not made more secure, Google DeepMind co-founder and chair Demis Hassabis told the International AI Summit in Dublin on Wednesday.
"I think these (hacking incidents) are early warning shots for us that systems aren't that powerful yet, so the incidents aren't that major," Hassabis said, according to Reuters. "But they could be (major) looking into next year and the next couple years if we don't do more work as an industry, as individual companies and governments on securing these systems." Hassabis is also chief scientist at Google parent Alphabet.
Reuters said rogue behaviour by AI agents, including corporate network hacks and Anthropic's disclosure that an AI model submitted a false homicide tip to police, has fuelled concern about the technology. AFP reported that Hassabis said new models should probably first be tested in offline sandboxes, after other companies' models escaped the closed environments used to assess them.
Hassabis said there was "a lot of work to do" to adopt the security practices used in fields such as biology and the nuclear sector, and that some form of international standards body would eventually be needed. He said it would have to be nimble enough not to stifle innovation, with a certification process proportionate to risk that can change quickly as the technology develops.
Microsoft President Brad Smith told the summit that rogue AI behaviour had made 2026 a "sobering year" and that new AI safety laws were urgently needed. "No company or technology should be above the law," he said.
AFP quoted the European Union's tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, as saying global competition meant companies were not investing enough time and resources in testing their models. She said the EU had sent information requests to all major AI companies about their safety and security measures. The European Commission gained new regulatory powers under the AI Act in August. RTE said about 1,500 people were expected at the summit.