Ex-Google safety chief takes on child AI safety role
Tom Siegel becomes first executive director of Common Sense Media's teen AI safety institute, giving child AI safety accountability a concrete vehicle; watch whether his standards materialize.
Original event 2026-09-22
Tom Siegel, formerly Google's VP of trust and safety, announced on September 22 that he has joined Common Sense Media as the first executive director of its teen AI safety institute, which the organization set up in May this year. Anthropic and the OpenAI Foundation are supporters of the institute.
The same day, he called for slowing AI development, saying the industry is repeating the social media playbook with potentially deeper harm to children. He named Anthropic and OpenAI as needing stricter age verification, and Google as capable of adding an off switch for AI Overviews in Search. Google and OpenAI spokespeople both responded that protective measures already exist.
These are his own statements to Reuters, a position signal rather than a new rule; the significance is that a safety executive with major-platform background has entered a vendor-funded assessment body, and what matters next is whether the accountability standards he promises take shape.