Top tech companies create joint AI safety forum

Tech companies leading in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry are creating a joint forum aimed at ensuring safe and responsible development of AI models, the companies announced Wednesday. 

The Frontier Model Forum, led by Microsoft, Google, ChatGPT creator OpenAI and AI research company Anthropic, comes as lawmakers in the U.S. and globally are racing to understand the booming AI industry and put guardrails in place. 

The forum will welcome member organizations that develop and deploy frontier models, demonstrate “strong commitments to frontier model safety” and are willing to “contribute to advancing” the forum’s efforts, the companies said in the joint announcement. 

The forum effort will also establish an advisory board that will help “guide its strategy and priorities.”

As the tech industry is pushing forward with its joint effort to consider safety measures for AI, guidelines put in place so far in the U.S. have been voluntary. 

The four companies leading the forum, along with Amazon, Inflection and Meta, have also agreed to voluntary commitments aimed at managing the risks of AI put forward by the White House, the administration said last week. 

In Congress, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last month revealed a framework for AI regulation and a plan to hold briefings with all senators, but no clear regulatory proposal has yet emerged.