Senate Draft Puts a 'Duty of Care' on Frontier AI Builders

The proposal would create a "duty of care" for developers of the most advanced AI models, give the U.S. government power to block the release of models it deems unsafe, and route company challenges through the federal courts. That is the shape of the bill Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Maria Cantwell are negotiating, per Reuters.

The targets are Alphabet's Google, Anthropic and OpenAI. The stated concern is narrow. Cruz said he is working with Klobuchar and Thune to "address catastrophic risks involving biological or nuclear threats." Klobuchar said she is "continuing to work toward a bipartisan agreement on legislation for government oversight of the greatest risks posed by AI models," and that the effort "includes requiring developers to work with government experts to verify and test models to make sure AI is safe."

Cantwell, the top Democrat on Commerce, wants a stricter draft. On preemption she said the "answer is not a weak federal standard that becomes a backdoor for wiping out stronger state protections." On testing she said "meaningful legislation would require the most powerful AI models undergo testing by scientists and experts at our national laboratories."

A Semafor account of the same negotiations reports that Anthropic has not taken a position on the bill but is providing feedback to the sponsors.

The calendar is the squeeze. The House is in session for one week before the Nov. 3 midterms; the Senate has three weeks in Washington. It lands the same week House Democrats asked Speaker Johnson to cancel the fall recess until Congress passes AI safeguards.