Open AI is collaborating with Antropic and Google to respond to AI safety

(San Francisco = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kwon Young-jeon = In a situation where the theory of controlling the speed of artificial intelligence (AI) development has emerged, it has been revealed that Open AI is already collaborating with Antropic and Google.

Bloomberg News reported on the 15th (local time) that Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief external affairs officer (CGAO), said at a briefing held in Washington, D.C. that the company has been cooperating with its two competitors to respond to AI safety for several weeks.

He emphasized, “It is desirable to work together with safety as the top priority.”

He explained that the three companies believe that an exemption from antitrust laws is not necessary to cooperate for AI safety.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson said today that he was "highly suspicious" of AI companies' request for exemption from antitrust laws for security cooperation, and defined the request as an attempt to build a moat to prevent other competitors from entering the market.

However, Lehane CGAO cited the aviation industry as a precedent for such safety cooperation between competitors and noted, "There are many cases where companies have tried to help each other to solve safety problems."

The intention is that measures to ensure passenger or technology safety, independent of market competition, are not subject to regulation by anti-monopoly law.

AFP news agency reported on this day that these three companies are pursuing the establishment of an AI standards organization through this collaboration.

This organization is modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which supervises financial companies in the United States, and was argued for by Google's top scientist Demis Hassabis.

Lehane CGAO plans to meet with U.S. Congressional officials in Washington, D.C. to support bipartisan legislation to respond to risks posed by AI technology.

Regarding the AI regulation bill currently being promoted in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, he said, “I will support any bill that can be passed.”

At the same time, as specific support bills, he mentioned a bill related to the federal AI governance framework promoted in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jay Overnaulty (Republican, California) and Rep. Lori Trahan (Democratic, Massachusetts), and a bill led by Republican Senate Leader John Shun (South Dakota) along with Senators Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (Democratic, Minnesota).

However, Bloomberg predicted that the possibility of passing AI regulation-related legislation within the year is slim, given that the House of Representatives will not reconvene until the midterm elections in early November and that the session held after the election will also focus on increasing the budget for the Department of Defense.

In addition, President Donald Trump is also expressing strong opposition to AI regulation measures, calling concerns about AI safety a “hoax.”

Since Antropic CEO Dario Amodei advocated the need for speed control for AI safety through his personal blog on the 12th, discussions on safety cooperation are gaining momentum across the industry, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk joining in.

However, Antropic and Google DeepMind did not respond to requests for comment in this regard.