Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, has said international cooperation on AI is essential yet increasingly difficult due to today's geopolitical tensions.

Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in London, he stressed that since AI is being developed and deployed across borders, no meaningful governance can exist without global collaboration.

Hassabis warned of the growing risks surrounding artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that could equal or exceed human capability. He noted the need for 'smart, adaptable regulation' instead of rigid rules, arguing that policy should evolve in line with the technology's direction and impact.

Although 58 countries, including China, India and members of the EU and African Union, supported greater coordination at an AI summit in Paris earlier this year, the US and UK declined to sign the shared commitment for ethical and inclusive AI.

The US warned that overregulation might stifle innovation in the sector.

Hassabis emphasised that with so many nations hosting data centres and advancing research, cooperation is unavoidable. Yet the fractured global climate makes such unity difficult to achieve, even as AI continues to reshape industries and raise urgent ethical concerns.

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