Google DeepMind AI Safety Researcher Josh Engels Leaves, Warning AI Safeguards Need More Time

Josh Engels, a researcher who worked on Google DeepMind's AGI safety team, has left the company for METR, saying advanced AI systems could cause severe harm within five years if safety work cannot keep pace. His move adds Google DeepMind to a widening wave of insider warnings from frontier AI labs, where the debate has shifted from abstract existential risk to concrete questions about agents, cybersecurity incidents, independent audits and whether model development should be deliberately slowed.