Anthropic quietly pitches its own AI safety bill to lawmakers, Politico reports

Oct 16 (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

• Anthropic and the Department of Commerce ​did not immediately respond to Reuters requests 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 in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Anil D'Silva)