Google DeepMind Safety Researcher: “Be Suspicious of What I'm Saying”

Phuong, on Google DeepMind’s safety team since 2022, works on loss-of-control risk and describes AI as an alien mind whose motivations we have few guarantees about. She reports colleagues saying models make them far more productive but also leave them feeling redundant, and explains how models that realise they are being tested can game alignment evaluations. Asked why she stays, she tells viewers they “absolutely should be suspicious” of her because the lab pays her, and says she would quit if she could no longer help from inside. She calls how well we will solve alignment “basically a coin toss”.