Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Wednesday that governments can no longer treat AI regulation as a problem to study and that the United States needs binding safety requirements for the most powerful AI models.
“AI is advancing at a lightning pace—in only four years, AI models have gone from barely being able to write a coherent line of code to writing most of the code at major AI companies,” Amodei wrote.
According to Amodei, his proposal borrows from the regulatory structure used by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Under Amodei’s proposal, a regulatory framework would require mandatory third-party testing of advanced AI models, government authority to block unsafe deployments, and requirements that companies secure model weights, conduct safety testing, and report serious incidents. He also calls on governments to prepare for AI-driven job displacement and advances in drug development, limit surveillance and autonomous weapons in domestic law enforcement, and strengthen cooperation among democratic nations on critical AI technologies.
“You can justify that in a lot of different ways, and some of it’s real, like there are going to be legitimate safety concerns," Altman said. “But if what you want is like 'we need control of AI, just us, because we’re the trustworthy people', I think fear-based marketing is probably the most effective way to justify that."
Amodei rejected the idea that concerns about advanced AI are primarily a public-relations problem, arguing instead that fears about the technology reflect legitimate concerns that must be addressed.
“People are worried about AI because they correctly perceive that its risks are real, not because AI CEOs have been insufficiently Panglossian,” he said, referring to the fictional philosopher Pangloss from Voltaire's Candide, who is known for maintaining an unwavering optimism that everything is for the best regardless of circumstances.
“I believe it is my duty as an AI leader to continue to be transparent about these risks, and public concern in response to this transparency constitutes democratic accountability working as it should,” he said.
