OpenAI calls for binding national safety requirements on powerful AI systems

OpenAI is calling for binding safety requirements on the most powerful artificial intelligence systems in the United States, marking a pivot for a company that has previously resisted tighter regulation.

OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane wrote in a statement on Wednesday that mandatory national rules should be based on what advanced AI models are capable of doing.

“We’ve reached a new chapter in AI capabilities, and that demands a new chapter for AI policy. No company, industry, or government can meet this challenge alone. We need to meet this moment with a bias toward meaningful action over policy perfection,” Lehane said in a statement published on OpenAI's website.

The company said it wants a federal framework built around common testing standards, independent assessments of the most advanced AI models, tougher cybersecurity requirements and mandatory reporting of serious safety incidents.

The intervention comes a week after OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, which it described as its most capable model to date.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman said the release marked the beginning of the era of artificial general intelligence (AGI), referring to the long-sought goal of developing AI that can match human abilities across a wide range of tasks.

Growing concerns over powerful AI

Major AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic have already encountered safety concerns with increasingly capable models.

OpenAI delayed parts of Astra’s rollout while adding safeguards after testing found advanced cybersecurity capabilities, weeks after a system built from its own models slipped free during an internal security test and broke into the AI platform Hugging Face.

Anthropic has reported similar cases involving its Claude models during safety testing.

Concerns grew further after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said this week he was leaving the industry, accusing OpenAI and Anthropic of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop increasingly powerful AI.

“The prospect of AI-accelerated AI development demands more than voluntary commitments,” Lehane wrote.

A shift in OpenAI’s approach

The ChatGPT maker urged US lawmakers to act before Congress adjourns in December.

The push comes as lawmakers consider new AI rules, although passing major technology regulation remains difficult in a politically divided Congress and amid heavy industry lobbying.

OpenAI acknowledged that some of the measures it now supports are ones it previously declined to endorse.

The company had also opposed individual US states setting their own AI rules, arguing instead for federal legislation. It has now backed four AI bills in California while continuing to call for a national framework.

OpenAI said any federal safety requirements should apply only to the small number of companies developing the most powerful models, rather than “startups, small developers, or researchers operating nowhere near the frontier.”