I've been at this for almost a decade, first as regulatory markets and now with Fathom as the IVO model. We all thought we had more time. We didn't, but luckily we have something concrete and shovel ready for the moment. What we need now is for governments to act on it while the window is open.

People ask me what happened. We've been building AI for 80 years. The key thing: humans stopped writing the rules. With machine learning we show the machine the data and it writes its own program. That moved us back a step from controlling these systems, and now AI is helping build the next AI.

I've been thinking about how to govern powerful AI for about ten years. I wasn't all that worried until the last six months. More worried in the last two months. More worried in the last week. Regulatory markets and IVOs are what we should be doing. I'm hoping it's not too late.

Thank you to Prime Minister @mark-carney.bsky.social for asking me to join his new National Council on Artificial Intelligence, which will advise on Canada’s AI for All strategy. buff.ly/cNVtSiY

Prime Minister Carney launches new National Council on Artificial Intelligence

AI for All is the government’s new national strategy to ensure that AI is adopted responsibly, in a way that truly serves all Canadians – building trust, expanding opportunities, and reinforcing our…

buff.ly

We have a handful of expert independent groups capable of testing whether frontier models actually have the controls the companies say they do. Little green shoots. We need mighty oaks, and fast, and that means money and brains going into an independent verification sector.

The first AGI Governance Fellowship cohort on their last day at Johns Hopkins, after their group project presentations. Three weeks of hard questions on the institutions we'll need for powerful AI. A great group. Thanks to the fellows, @sethlazar.org, @nickacaputo.bsky.social and all who joined us.

Letting evaluators into AI labs isn't oversight when the lab picks them, sets their access and can show them the door. To do the job right, evaluators need serious oversight. Who decides they're qualified? What keeps them independent? What happens if they do the job badly?

I spoke to Salma Abdelaziz on CNN International about how to slow down AI when the US and China are racing. The people closest to the technology are the ones asking for it. Slowing down doesn't mean stopping. It means making sure a system is safe enough before it goes out.

The recording of my Next Conversations panel with Stuart Russell and @deanwb.bsky.social at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center is up. We don't agree on everything, but we agree the gap between what these systems can do and the tools we have to keep them in check is widening fast.

Thank you to Governor Newsom for asking me to join the group of experts advising California on AI safety and security governance.

I spoke to @amitkatwala.bsky.social at MIT Tech Review about DeepMind's new swarm experiment, where agents cheated and others blew the whistle. Official channels to talk may have contributed to enforcement. Alignment is institutional, not (just) dispositional. buff.ly/K2e5p0a

AI agents blew the whistle on their cheating colleagues

Swarms of AI agents could supercharge scientific progress or wreak havoc. New research from Google DeepMind suggests that peer pressure could keep them in line.

buff.ly

I spoke to TIME about the Hugging Face incident and AI agents. If you said we're building new members of a group, our group, you'd build them differently than you're building them now. Alignment is not just an engineering problem. It's fundamentally institutional. buff.ly/YO18tlS

California will now designate independent verification organizations, outside experts qualified to assess the risks of AI models. Newsom signed SB 813 yesterday, the biggest step yet toward the independent verification sector we need. Thank you to @senmcnerney.bsky.social and Fathom. buff.ly/RHxB25H

Governor Newsom signs first-in-the-nation AI safeguards to protect Californians, calls on the federal government to do its part | Governor of California

Official website of the State of California

gov.ca.gov

Delighted to welcome Brigit Goebelbecker as the new CEO of @coop-ai.bsky.social. Lucky to have her at such a critical time for cooperative AI. Looking forward to working with Brigit, Research Director Lewis Hammond and everyone at the Foundation. Welcome! buff.ly/z6OCcGd

CAIF Appoints First CEO

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Brigit Goebelbecker as Chief Executive Officer, starting October 2026.

cooperativeai.com

Fantastic opportunity for ambitious ML researchers, and a really great group of people to work with. Up to 12 Fellows across Oxford, UCL and Imperial, with full academic freedom. Deadline is Sept 15. Please spread the word in your network! buff.ly/nfOmBli

The AI investigating the Hugging Face hack took the rogue agents' side. METR used similar models to read the transcripts, and its chief scientist called them "very credulous." Same finding in Talk Isn't Always Cheap: agents swap reasoning and flip from right to wrong. buff.ly/XtuO2GO

Dylan Freedman (@dylanfreedman.nytimes.com)

OpenAI voluntarily let three researchers from A.I. safety nonprofits investigate how its rogue A.I. agents hacked Hugging Face, leading to the most comprehensive account yet of the alarming incident…

bsky.app

@sethlazar.org, @nickacaputo.bsky.social, and I are building Governing the AI Transition, a new Johns Hopkins SGP initiative to help society navigate the transition to powerful AI. We're hiring a Director to build it with us. If you're ready to roll up your sleeves, please apply! buff.ly/zPa3bFu

GAIT Director (School of Government and Policy) | Johns Hopkins University

Support faculty strategic leadership of GAIT by executing large-scale projects in alignment with the School's strategic goals. Ensure initiatives meet sponsor deliverables, compliance requirements,…

hiring.jhu.edu

Yesterday I was on Capitol Hill with Fathom briefing House staff on the FRONTIER Act, the bipartisan bill from Rep. Obernolte and Rep. Trahan that would license independent experts to verify the safety of frontier AI. Full room, and a clear sense that Congress needs to move on this. buff.ly/KqNFbDG

Over half of internet traffic is now non-human. With Dan Hendrycks and Leo Wu, I look at agent IDs, deployment cards, personhood, and payments. It mostly comes down to how much we let agents do and how much oversight we keep. buff.ly/AQjYo3k

We Need Better Infrastructure to Govern AI Agents

Gillian Hadfield, Aug 27, 2026 — Society is not prepared for a flood of agents. We need new protocols and standards, such as Agent ID, to make agents accountable to our legal and financial systems.

ai-frontiers.org

Roughly 700 OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face. METR and Redwood's independent investigation took three researchers and six days. IVOs exist to make that scrutiny routine. Last night California became the first state to start building the IVO sector. #AIGovernance #IVO buff.ly/3aJwdz8

California Legislature Overwhelmingly Passes Fathom-Sponsored Bill to Spur Independent Verification of AI Safety - Fathom

Building solutions to navigate the transition to a world with AI

fathom.org

Thanks to The National Law Review and Wickard for naming me to their 2026 Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia. Congratulations as well to the other honorees, a strong group working across AI, law, and legal education. natlawreview.com/article/2026...

The 2026 Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia

The National Law Review and Wickard are proud to announce the Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia for 2026, a national recognition honoring the educators, administrators, researchers, and academic…

natlawreview.com

A crib gets a safety sticker because someone independent tested it first, so parents don’t have to. We actually have that for almost everything else in kids’ lives. Ohio’s HB 628 would license independent verifiers to do it for AI. #AIGovernance #IVO www.clermontsun.com/2026/08/19/l...

Letter to the Editor: AI at home

<p>When my kids were babies, I checked the crib for the safety sticker and the car seat for recalls. Someone I trusted had already tested those things and decided they were safe.</p>

clermontsun.com

The FRONTIER Act would license independent verifiers to assess the risk posed by advanced AI models. Government shifts from doing the testing to overseeing the testers. I talked to @eawhitford.bsky.social at MLex about building a market for those verifiers. buff.ly/gYHronv

Auditing pitch sparks US debate about how to hold AI companies accountable | MLex | Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation

US state and federal lawmakers are pitching third-party auditors to help assess the risk posed by advanced artificial intelligence models, sparking a debate about how to keep companies in check in a…

mlex.com

Thanks to Knowledge Networks and Regulating AI for including me in this year's AI Policy 100. Congratulations as well to the others on the list working in this critical domain. natlawreview.com/press-releas...

Knowledge Networks & Regulating AI Introduces The AI Policy 100, Honoring the Most Influential Voices in AI Governance

34 New Articles

natlawreview.com

We only learned about OpenAI and Anthropic agents hacking into secure systems because the companies chose to tell us. But if Boeing discovered a dangerous problem with one of its aircraft, it wouldn't get to keep that information to itself. Drug companies are obligated to report adverse events.

1/ The Pacing the Frontier letter calls on the US government to support an international effort to build the technical and governance tools needed to protect our option to pace AI development. bsky.app/profile/yosh...

Yoshua Bengio (@yoshuabengio.bsky.social)

1000+ scientists at frontier AI companies are speaking out to warn that the current commercial race leads to unacceptable security risks. I agree with their call for an international effort to…

bsky.app

1/ Air Canada had to honor a discount its chatbot invented. The liability caused by AI agents is landing on policies written by an insurance industry that never planned for them.

1/ AI agents that can sign contracts on your behalf, hire employees, set prices, and move your money around are being heavily invested in by AI companies. But what I want to call attention to, what happens if an agent sells you faulty goods or runs off with your deposit?

I joined over 200 economists and AI researchers in signing "We Must Act Now" a statement on AI's transformation of the economy. AI could reshape the economy at unprecedented speed. The opportunities are enormous and so are the challenges. We need to start preparing our institutions.

We Must Act Now: A Statement on AI’s Transformation of the Economy

wemustactnow.ai

1/ Illinois just became the first state to require frontier AI developers to undergo annual third-party audits. Gov. Pritzker signed the AI Safety Measures Act (SB 315) this week, going beyond California and New York, which only require published frameworks and incident reports.