OpenAI Defies Antitrust Concerns to Join Rivals on AI Safety
OpenAI Global Policy Chief Chris Lehane said Tuesday (Sept. 15) that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have been working together for several weeks to address artificial intelligence safety issues, Bloomberg reported.
Speaking at a briefing in Washington, Lehane said OpenAI does not see any need for an antitrust waiver to coordinate safety efforts. He said there are precedents for such cooperation, such as in the airline industry, according to the report.
“There are many instances over time where companies are trying to help each other on safety,” Lehane said, per the report.
Neither Anthropic nor Google DeepMind immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
It was reported Sunday that Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have had talks about establishing an AI industry standards body. The report, which cited unnamed sources, said the extent to which companies have begun collaborating on industry standards had not been previously reported.
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It was reported Tuesday that Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said during an event in Washington that policymakers should be cautious when it comes to efforts by AI companies to secure exemptions from antitrust rules while also pressing Washington for new regulations.
Ferguson framed his remarks as his personal view rather than an announcement of FTC or administration policy, per the report.
According to Tuesday’s Bloomberg report, Lehane said he was in Washington to meet with lawmakers and that OpenAI would support bipartisan proposals to address potential catastrophic risks from AI.
Politico reported Tuesday that Lehane told reporters that OpenAI supports a provision of legislation called the Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation, and Reporting (FRONTIER) Act that would create a federal framework for AI safety and require top AI companies to allow outside evaluators to determine if their models are safe.
The FRONTIER Act was introduced by Reps. Jay Obernolte of California and Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, according to the report.
Lehane said Tuesday that he met with one of the bill’s sponsors to make it clear that OpenAI supports this requirement to have “independent verification organizations,” per the report.
“I think it was important for them to hear that and hear it from us, and we wanted to be really clear about that,” Lehane said, per the report.
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