Anthropic pitches AI safety bill to lawmakers

Published Sat, Oct 17, 2026 · 03:50 PM

[SAN FRANCISCO] Anthropic has presented its own draft bill to US lawmakers with a plan for regulating artificial intelligence safety and security, in a moment of heightened concern about the potential risks of the rapidly advancing technology.  

The proposal suggests the government could block the release of an AI model if it’s determined to imminently risk killing or injuring more than 50 people or causing more than US$1 billion in damages, according to Politico, which first reported on the bill.

The threat must be a result of the model creating or releasing a biological weapon, the AI going beyond human control, or a cyberattack, Politico reported. 

“This bill represents the proposals outlined in Anthropic’s Advanced AI Framework, which we have been advocating for with federal and state lawmakers since June,” a company spokesperson said.

The bill would mandate that AI makers must test their models and share findings with the public; it also would require AI companies to allow independent evaluators to routinely review models, the spokesperson said.

“Our proposal also grants the federal government the ability to block or deter dangerous deployments of the most powerful models,” the spokesperson said. “These are sensible policies we believe Congress should act on.”

The company declined to comment on how broadly it has pitched the proposal and how it’s been received so far.

In recent months, a series of breaches and hacks led by AI models have fuelled anxiety over the technology’s potentially catastrophic risks, spurring calls from Washington to Silicon Valley for new safeguards, but so far, US President Donald Trump’s administration has rejected calls for more oversight. BLOOMBERG