Deepmind banned AI extinction risk talks, ex staffer claims
former deepmind pr staffer vishal maini says the lab once banned public discussion of ai extinction risk, now the gap between internal knowledge and public messaging is shrinking.
vishal maini, who worked at deepmind from 2018 to 2022, says the lab banned public discussion of ai extinction risk. researchers were advised to dismiss these concerns as alarmism and compare them to science fiction. internally, the team acknowledged the ai alignment problem was unsolved and underaddressed. after maini pushed back, deepmind allowed positively framed safety content, reflecting a shift as evidence of ai risks becomes harder to ignore. this change aligns with a growing trend of ai safety researchers speaking out.