❯ Google, OpenAI and Anthropic plan an industry safety body to set their own testing and incident-reporting rules

Writing their own rulebookAccording to The Information, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are advancing an industry-led AI safety standards organization, tentatively called the Standards Authority for Frontier AI (SAFA), which could launch by the end of this year or early 2027. It would set rules for pre-deployment testing, auditor qualifications and incident reporting.

A FINRA for AIThe idea stems from a proposal by Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, modeled on Wall Street’s FINRA: funded and self-regulated by industry, with government oversight. The White House was reportedly interested in an executive order, but that effort stalled, so the three companies moved ahead. Organizers have approached former White House AI policy adviser Sriram Krishnan and former White House science director Arati Prabhakar to lead it, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is under consideration as board chair. How the government would participate is still undecided.

Who gets to refereeWriting the rules first could spare the three companies stricter federal or state laws, but invites the charge that they are both player and referee. Today’s first story is a ready-made test: whether the body would require sandbox incidents like OpenAI’s to be reported and disclosed will show whether it is a real constraint or a PR gesture.

▪ SIGNALSelf-regulation is the easiest route and the hardest to trust; whether this body has teeth depends on whether it makes members disclose their own incidents.