Frontier Model Forum
In plain wordsAn industry group set up in 2023 by leading AI companies to share safety research and best practices for the most advanced AI models.
An industry nonprofit of frontier AI developers that funds and coordinates work on the safety and security of the most capable models. It publishes technical reports and issue briefs on topics such as dangerous-capability evaluationsdangerous capability evaluation, n.: A test of whether an AI system can do things that could cause severe harm in the wrong hands or on its own — such as helping make a bioweapon, hacking computers or copying itself., biosecurity thresholds, safety casessafety case, n.: A written, evidence-backed argument that a particular AI system is safe enough for a particular use, putting the burden of proof on the developer, as with nuclear plants or aircraft. and frontier safety frameworks; facilitates confidential information-sharing among members about threats and vulnerabilities; and administers an AI Safety Fund, launched in October 2023 with about $10 million from members and philanthropies, for independent research. Its founding members were Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI; Amazon and Meta joined in 2024. Supporters see it as a channel for spreading safety practices across competitors; critics see industry self-regulation that may forestall binding rules, and as an association of rivals it must stay within antitrust limits.
The Frontier Model Forum brief proposed common terminology for biosecurity evaluations.
Origin
Announced on July 26, 2023 by Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, shortly after the White House voluntary commitments; Chris Meserole became its first executive director in October 2023, and Amazon and Meta joined in May 2024.
Related
- responsible scaling policyresponsible scaling policy, n.: A public rulebook in which an AI company promises to test each new model for dangerous abilities and to add stronger safeguards, or slow down, as its models become more capable.
- Frontier AI Safety CommitmentsFrontier AI Safety Commitments, prop. n.: Promises made in 2024 by major AI companies to publish safety plans for their most advanced models, including the danger points at which they would stop if the risks could not be controlled.
- dangerous capability evaluationdangerous capability evaluation, n.: A test of whether an AI system can do things that could cause severe harm in the wrong hands or on its own — such as helping make a bioweapon, hacking computers or copying itself.
- AI safetyAI safety, n.: The effort to keep AI from doing serious harm, whether because it pursues aims its makers never intended, is turned to bad uses or simply malfunctions — a concern that grows as systems become more capable.
- frontier AIfrontier AI, n.: The most capable general-purpose AI systems of the moment — those at or beyond the leading edge — which governments single out for extra safety attention.
Mentioned in
frontier modelfrontier model, n.: One of the most capable AI models in existence at a given time, built by a handful of leading labs at great cost, and the main target of AI safety rules., frontier labfrontier lab, n.: One of the handful of companies building the most advanced AI models of the moment, spending billions of dollars on computing power to train them., Partnership on AIPartnership on AI, prop. n.: A forum, set up by big technology companies in 2016 and later joined by universities, charities and news organizations, that drafts voluntary guidelines for building and using AI responsibly.