Frontier model safety

The European Commission holds a special meeting of its Scientific Panel on artificial intelligence today, after the panel investigated recent loss-of-control incidents. Together with the AI Office, the panel prepared questions for the companies that developed the models involved. The panel, made up of 60 independent experts, will present recommendations on frontier AI safety and security risks.

A blueprint from the source's authors proposes a durable U.S. federal framework for governing increasingly capable AI systems. It rests on three parts: a national framework built on the emerging consensus in state frontier safety laws, strengthening CAISI as the primary federal institution for frontier AI safety, and a broader government resilience plan for national security and public safety challenges. The source cites California's SB 53, New York's RAISE Act, Illinois's SB 315, and a new White House executive order as steps toward it.

OpenAI's public policy agenda states its mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity, guided by five principles: democratization, empowerment, universal prosperity, resilience and adaptability. Under its safety priority, OpenAI treats frontier AI safety as a national security and public safety issue and supports state frontier safety laws, including California SB 53, the New York RAISE Act and Illinois SB 315, as a basis for a federal framework. The source text is cut off before the framework's full requirements.

Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo) introduced the AI LEAD Act, which would create a federal cause of action letting people harmed by AI systems sue AI companies. The act would apply product liability to AI systems, holding companies liable for failing to exercise reasonable care in design or warnings, breaching warranties, or selling defective systems, and would bar contractual limits on that liability.

California's legislature passed SB-53, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, on September 17th and sent it to Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill would require frontier developers to publish frontier AI frameworks, transparency reports and catastrophic risk assessments, and to report critical safety incidents. If signed, California would become the first US state to regulate catastrophic risk.