Four of the most influential companies in artificial intelligence have announced the formation of an industry body to oversee safe development of the most advanced models.
The Frontier Model Forum has been formed by the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google, the owner of the UK-based DeepMind.
The group said it would focus on the “safe and responsible” development of frontier AI models, referring to AI technology even more advanced than the examples available currently.
The forum’s members said their main objectives were to promote research in AI safety, such as developing standards for evaluating models; encouraging responsible deployment of advanced AI models; discussing trust and safety risks in AI with politicians and academics; and helping develop positive uses for AI such as combating the climate crisis and detecting cancer.
They added that membership of the group was open to organisations that develop frontier models, which is defined as “large-scale machine-learning models that exceed the capabilities currently present in the most advanced existing models, and can perform a wide variety of tasks”.
“Companies creating AI technology have a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, secure, and remains under human control,” said Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft. “This initiative is a vital step to bring the tech sector together in advancing AI responsibly and tackling the challenges so that it benefits all of humanity.”
The announcement comes as moves to regulate the technology gather pace. Last week tech companies – including the founder members of the Frontier Model Forum – agreed to new AI safeguards after a White House meeting with Joe Biden. Commitments from the meeting included watermarking AI content to make it easier to spot misleading material such as deepfakes and allowing independent experts to test AI models.
