The Importance of Safety and Responsibility in AI Development
Governments and industry recognize the immense potential of AI to benefit society. However, it is crucial to establish safeguards to mitigate risks associated with this advanced technology. Several entities, such as the US and UK governments, the European Union, the OECD, and the G7, have already made significant contributions in this area.
Building on Existing Efforts
Continuing this progress, further work is required to develop and deploy frontier AI models responsibly. To facilitate cross-organizational discussions and actions on AI safety and responsibility, the Frontier Model Forum has been established.
The Forum’s Key Focus Areas
The Forum will concentrate on three main areas over the next year to support the safe and responsible development of frontier AI models:
- Identifying best practices: The Forum aims to promote knowledge sharing and best practices among industry, governments, civil society, and academia. This focus will center around safety standards and practices that can mitigate various potential risks.
- Advancing AI safety research: The Forum will support the AI safety ecosystem by identifying critical research questions in this field. Particular emphasis will be placed on adversarial robustness, mechanistic interpretability, scalable oversight, independent research access, emergent behaviors, and anomaly detection. Additionally, the Forum will foster the development and sharing of a public library of technical evaluations and benchmarks for frontier AI models.
- Facilitating information sharing: Secure and trusted mechanisms will be established to enable the sharing of information among companies, governments, and relevant stakeholders regarding AI safety and risks. The Forum will adopt responsible disclosure practices from cybersecurity as a guide.
Industry Leaders’ Perspective:
Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs at Google & Alphabet expressed enthusiasm for collaborating with other leading companies to promote responsible AI innovation, stating that collective effort is necessary to ensure AI benefits everyone.
According to Brad Smith, Vice Chair & President of Microsoft, companies involved in AI technology have a responsibility to ensure its safety, security, and human control. This initiative is a vital step in uniting the tech sector to advance AI responsibly and overcome challenges for the benefit of humanity.
Anna Makanju, Vice President of Global Affairs at OpenAI, emphasized the need for oversight and governance in realizing the potential societal benefits of advanced AI technologies. Aligning on common ground and developing adaptable safety practices are key for AI companies, especially those working on powerful models, to maximize the positive impact of their tools.
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, expressed their belief in the transformative power of AI and the importance of collaboration across industry, civil society, government, and academia to ensure its safe and responsible development. The Frontier Model Forum will play a vital role in coordinating best practices and sharing research on frontier AI safety.