Leaders in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector are working to establish a standards body to regulate the industry, responding to increasing concerns about its potential dangers. OpenAI, along with competitors Anthropic and Google, announced on Tuesday their collaboration on this initiative. The proposal for the regulatory body, suggested by Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, is modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees US brokers and investment firms.
Hassabis previously called for a federal organization to test powerful AI systems before their public release, proposing that funding for this body should come from the industry to attract technical talent and provide necessary resources for large-scale testing.
Concerns about AI safety have intensified recently, highlighted by warnings from former employees of major AI firms. Jacob Coxon, a former OpenAI researcher, resigned from Anthropic last week, expressing that AI companies are "gambling with our lives." Similarly, former Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai warned that "AI has the potential to kill us all" and that time is running out to prevent such outcomes.
Industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have echoed calls for a slowdown in AI development. In contrast, former President Donald Trump has dismissed these safety concerns as "hoaxes" and "conspiracies," while Congress remains divided and has not taken action on the matter.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang supported Trump's dismissal, stating that the prediction of AI destroying humanity is "not grounded on science." However, some Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, have expressed caution regarding AI development.
Smaller AI companies have voiced concerns that self-regulatory measures could disadvantage them, with Cohere's Aidan Gomez accusing larger American AI labs of forming a "cartel" under the pretext of safety. Gomez emphasized that while AI needs guardrails, the debate centers on who creates these regulations and whose interests they serve.