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Oct 17 (Reuters) – Anthropic representatives have quietly pitched Capitol Hill lawmakers on a draft bill to regulate frontier AI safety and security, Politico reported on Friday, citing three people with knowledge of the efforts.
The bill would let the government block a model’s release or use only if it poses a foreseeable, imminent risk of more than $1 billion in damages, or of killing or seriously injuring more than 50 people, according to the report.
Here are some details:
- The risk must stem from the creation or release of a biological weapon, the model evading its developer’s controls or a cyberattack, Politico reported
- An Anthropic spokesperson told Reuters the bill represents proposals outlined in Anthropic’s “Advanced AI Framework,” released earlier this year
- The bill would grant the government the “ability to block or deter dangerous deployments of the most powerful models,” and also requires developers to test frontier AI models, be transparent about findings, and get them independently evaluated, the spokesperson said
- The Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment
- Under the bill, independent evaluators, which would register with the Commerce Department, would be tasked with periodically evaluating the lab and its frontier models, according to the report
- The labs could pay these evaluators, provided the payment is not tied to the evaluation’s outcome, the report said
- If the evaluators determine there is “imminent enumerated risk” for a company’s frontier models, they must report it to Commerce within 72 hours of completing their assessment, Politico reported
- While the Commerce Department could request a judge to halt a model after determining risk, the language explicitly prohibits any other US government department, agency, or officer from suspending development, deployment, or internal use, according to the report
- A federal judge for the District Court for the District of Columbia could order the suspension of a model, the report said
Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ananya Palyekar, Editing by Anil D’Silva
