/AI11h ago

DeepMind's Rohin Shah argues catastrophic AI misalignment is unlikely and pre-deployment evaluations are the wrong focus for safety

He also warns that public safety signaling diverts engineering resources

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Rob Wiblin#1115
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Samuel Albanie 🇬🇧#930
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Anshul Kundaje#1675
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Rob Wiblin@robertwiblin#1115inAI

My best interview in some time.

Rohin Shah leads AGI alignment/safety at DeepMind.

And he has a lot of spicy personal takes:

We probably won’t get catastrophic misalignment (00:49) Safety 'commitments' have severe limitations (10:38) The intelligence explosion probably isn't imminent (1:52:44) Why he's not working to pause AI advances (51:44) Pre-deployment evals aren't the right focus (for catastrophic risks) (37:41) Signalling concern for safety sometimes diverts resources from actually making AI safe (01:09:51) Reading AI thoughts is v useful for safety – and we'll probably be able to for years to come (54:17) Governance is somewhat more likely to be the bottleneck than alignment (43:55) Rohin's team doesn't have a veto, and that's OK (27:36) Central banks are a promising model for regulating AI (33:34)

Also:

Google DeepMind's actual plan for building AGI safely (1:40:29) How external researchers can positively influence big AI companies (2:21:55) The roles GDM most needs to hire for (2:37:03)

On the 80,000 Hours Podcast. Links below - enjoy! (@rohinmshah)

9:24 AM · Jun 2, 2026 · 42.5K Views
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Samuel Albanie 🇬🇧@SamuelAlbanie

recommended listening

Rob Wiblin@robertwiblin

My best interview in some time.

Rohin Shah leads AGI alignment/safety at DeepMind.

And he has a lot of spicy personal takes:

We probably won’t get catastrophic misalignment (00:49) Safety 'commitments' have severe limitations (10:38) The intelligence explosion probably isn't imminent (1:52:44) Why he's not working to pause AI advances (51:44) Pre-deployment evals aren't the right focus (for catastrophic risks) (37:41) Signalling concern for safety sometimes diverts resources from actually making AI safe (01:09:51) Reading AI thoughts is v useful for safety – and we'll probably be able to for years to come (54:17) Governance is somewhat more likely to be the bottleneck than alignment (43:55) Rohin's team doesn't have a veto, and that's OK (27:36) Central banks are a promising model for regulating AI (33:34)

Also:

Google DeepMind's actual plan for building AGI safely (1:40:29) How external researchers can positively influence big AI companies (2:21:55) The roles GDM most needs to hire for (2:37:03)

On the 80,000 Hours Podcast. Links below - enjoy! (@rohinmshah)

5hViews 502Likes 3Bookmarks 4
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Rob Wiblin@robertwiblin

My best interview in some time.

Rohin Shah leads AGI alignment/safety at DeepMind.

And he has a lot of spicy personal takes:

We probably won’t get catastrophic misalignment (00:49) Safety 'commitments' have severe limitations (10:38) The intelligence explosion probably isn't imminent (1:52:44) Why he's not working to pause AI advances (51:44) Pre-deployment evals aren't the right focus (for catastrophic risks) (37:41) Signalling concern for safety sometimes diverts resources from actually making AI safe (01:09:51) Reading AI thoughts is v useful for safety – and we'll probably be able to for years to come (54:17) Governance is somewhat more likely to be the bottleneck than alignment (43:55) Rohin's team doesn't have a veto, and that's OK (27:36) Central banks are a promising model for regulating AI (33:34)

Also:

Google DeepMind's actual plan for building AGI safely (1:40:29) How external researchers can positively influence big AI companies (2:21:55) The roles GDM most needs to hire for (2:37:03)

On the 80,000 Hours Podcast. Links below - enjoy! (@rohinmshah)

11hViews 42.5KLikes 465Bookmarks 588