The paper argues that organizations that have the stated goal of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) need an internal audit function. First, it explains what internal audit is: a specific team that performs an ongoing assessment of an organization's risk management practices and reports directly to the board of directors, while being organizationally independent from senior management. Next, the paper discusses the main benefits of internal audit for AGI labs: it can make their risk management practices more effective; ensure that the board of directors has a more accurate view of the current level of risk and the effectiveness of the lab's risk management practices; signal that the lab follows best practices in corporate governance; and serve as a contact point for whistleblowers. However, AGI labs should be aware of a number of limitations: internal audit adds friction; there is not much empirical evidence in support of the above-mentioned benefits; the benefits depend on the people involved and their ability and willingness to identify ineffective risk management practices; setting up and maintaining an internal audit team is costly; and it should only be seen as an additional "layer of defense", not a silver bullet against emerging risks from AI. Finally, the paper provides a blueprint for how AGI labs could set up an internal audit team and suggests concrete things the team would do on a day-to-day basis. These suggestions are based on the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing Standards. In light of rapid progress in AI research and development, AGI labs need to professionalize their risk management practices. Instead of "reinventing the wheel", they should follow existing best practices in corporate governance. This will not be sufficient as they approach AGI, but they should not skip this obvious first step.

翻译：本文主张，以构建通用人工智能（AGI）为明确目标的组织需要设立内部审计职能。首先，本文阐明了内部审计的定义：一个专门的团队，负责持续评估组织的风险管理实践，直接向董事会报告，同时在组织架构上独立于高级管理层。随后，本文讨论了内部审计对AGI实验室的主要益处：它能使风险管理实践更为有效；确保董事会对当前风险水平以及实验室风险管理实践的有效性有更准确的认知；向外界表明实验室遵循公司治理的最佳实践；并充当举报人的联络点。然而，AGI实验室也需意识到若干局限性：内部审计会增加运作摩擦；支持上述益处的实证证据尚不充分；其效果取决于相关人员识别无效风险管理实践的能力与意愿；建立并维持内部审计团队成本高昂；并且它仅应被视为一道“额外的防线”，而非应对AI新兴风险的万灵丹。最后，本文为AGI实验室如何组建内部审计团队提供了蓝图，并就该团队的日常具体工作提出了建议。这些建议基于《国际内部审计专业实务标准》。鉴于人工智能研究与开发的快速进展，AGI实验室需要使其风险管理实践专业化。与其“重新发明轮子”，他们应遵循现有的公司治理最佳实践。随着他们接近AGI，这固然不足，但也不应跳过这显而易见的第一步。