Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are moving ahead with plans to build their own AI safety standards body, sidestepping the wait for federal rules. The three companies are targeting a launch by the end of the year or early in 2027, without government oversight, according to The Information.
What the group is trying to build
The three AI companies are working to create an organization in which builders of frontier AI models would regulate themselves, without government oversight. They initially aimed to form a public-private partnership, but that effort stalled in the Trump administration.
The standards body would support third-party organizations that test models before they are deployed, would detail how AI developers should report safety and security incidents, would define the labs’ voluntary safety and security commitments, and would establish qualifications for independent auditors of models and labs.
The group is tentatively being called the Standards Authority for Frontier AI (SAFA), and the plan is for it to operate independently and address gaps in government oversight.
How the talks got here
Representatives from the three companies have been meeting on a working-group basis since at least July, with the effort predating recent public safety commentary from industry leaders.
Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis separately proposed a FINRA-style, US-based Frontier AI Standards Body on July 14. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman reportedly told employees at an internal meeting that he supports creating a testing and auditing body, but believes major labs will need to build one themselves absent US government backing.
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Overlap with the Frontier Model Forum
Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Microsoft created a nonprofit organization with many of these goals, the Frontier Model Forum, in 2023, and that group remains active. That organization and the potential new one are in contact and could work together.
The AI safety organization had approached Sriram Krishnan and invited him to serve as CEO.
The pushback
Not everyone in the industry is on board with letting the largest labs write the rulebook. Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez offered a pointed critique, warning on X that letting the biggest AI companies jointly set rules risked putting smaller competitors at a disadvantage.
The push for broader standards gained further attention when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei addressed the United Nations Security Council on AI safety. Altman said major decisions about AI should be shaped through democratic institutions and governments, while Amodei called for international agreements and global standards for testing new AI models.
Options market and stocks to watch
Watch for reaction across the mega-cap AI names most tied to this initiative and the broader frontier-model race:
- GOOGL: Google DeepMind is at the center of the proposal, so watch for how any self-regulatory framework impacts model deployment timelines.
- MSFT: As OpenAI’s largest backer and a Frontier Model Forum founder, watch for read-throughs on how the new body interacts with existing efforts.
- NVDA: Any change in the pace of frontier-model releases or testing requirements could shift the demand curve for training compute.
- META: Notably absent from the group despite Llama, so watch for whether Meta signs on or pushes back on lab-led standards.
- AMZN: A major Anthropic investor, so watch how AWS-hosted model deployments handle any new auditing or reporting requirements.
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