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OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have been in talks on AI safety for weeks
OpenAI global policy chief Chris Lehane said the company has been discussing AI safety with Anthropic and Google DeepMind for several weeks, as Bloomberg first reported.
AI.info Team ·
Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s global policy chief, told reporters on Tuesday, September 15, that the company has been working with rivals Anthropic and Google DeepMind on AI safety for several weeks, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Lehane is reportedly in Washington to work with U.S. lawmakers addressing catastrophic risks associated with artificial intelligence. The disclosure follows an essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calling for the industry to work together to slow the pace of frontier AI and avoid catastrophic risks.
AI leaders including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis have supported Amodei’s call to action. Altman has also said OpenAI would join Anthropic in embedding third-party evaluators into the company to monitor for safety.
Lehane confirms the talks
Lehane said the three companies have been in discussions about AI safety for several weeks. The talks come as companies developing frontier systems face pressure to show how they will evaluate dangerous capabilities and respond to serious risks.
Some participants, including Altman, have noted that coordination among competing AI companies could raise antitrust concerns if it were found to suppress competition. Amodei’s essay proposed a narrow government waiver allowing safety coordination, but Lehane reportedly said the firms do not need one.
At the same Tuesday meeting, Lehane said OpenAI supports a provision in the FRONTIER Act that would require leading frontier labs to allow independent organizations into their companies to help determine whether models are being developed safely.
“independent verification organizations”
Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s global policy chief
A proposed standards body
The disclosure confirms earlier reporting that the companies have been considering ways to work together on AI safety. In an interview with Fortune late last week, Altman hinted that he had been in private discussions with other AI leaders.
The Information has reported that OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have been working together to create a standards body for the AI industry. Altman reportedly told staff that such a body would need to be established without support from the U.S. government.
Hassabis called on the United States in July to establish a new standards body to act as an AI watchdog. The proposed organization would have the power to screen the world’s most advanced models and coordinate industrywide slowdowns if dangers progressed.
Debate over slowing AI development
Amodei’s essay argued that frontier AI companies should work together to slow development when safety measures cannot keep pace. The proposal reflects growing concern that technical progress could outstrip the ability of companies and regulators to identify and manage catastrophic risks.
President Donald Trump has dismissed safety concerns as a hoax and opposed tighter regulations, saying that any slowdown would give China an advantage in the competition to develop advanced AI systems. His AI adviser David Sacks has also said fears of existential risk from AI are overblown.
The talks between OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have not produced a public agreement to pause model development. They instead point to possible cooperation on independent evaluation, safety standards and responses to dangerous capabilities while the companies continue competing in the commercial AI market.
TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic, Google and OpenAI for comment.