Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic Found Frontier Model Forum to Monitor Generative AI Development

Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have unveiled a new cross-company industry group devoted to the “safe and responsible development” of AI technology called the Frontier Model Forum. The new group announced that it will coordinate its members to monitor generative AI technology and promote best practices that adhere to the rapidly evolving ethical and legal frameworks surrounding AI, including the commitment announced at the White House by the founding companies and other generative AI firms to coming up with safety principles.

Frontier Model Forum

“We’re excited to work together with other leading companies, sharing technical expertise to promote responsible AI innovation,” Google and Alphabet global affairs president Kent Walker said. “We’re all going to need to work together to make sure AI benefits everyone.”

The Frontier Model Forum is named for its membership’s self-described place on the edge of technology, creating “frontier models”that go beyond current AI systems in scale and capabilities. The Forum is keen to set itself up as an industry-based source of benchmarks and standards for generative AI. Though the Forum says it wants to build on existing government and industry efforts on AI governance, it also hints that its ambition is to get ahead of the coalescing regulatory systems for AI that governments and international bodies are designing.

“Companies creating AI technology have a responsibility to ensure that it is safe, secure, and remains under human control,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said. “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 four initial companies in the Forum are likely to be joined by others soon. The group listed requirements for membership as simply being in the field, committing to the goals of the Forum, and a willingness to work on projects with other companies. The most notable generative AI companies absent from the Forum include Meta and Stability AI. That might be because of their open-source angle to LLM development, or just a matter of timing. It’s also worth noting that Microsoft is the central backer of OpenAI and that Google has played a slightly smaller but still enormously significant role in funding and supporting Anthropic.

“Advanced AI technologies have the potential to profoundly benefit society, and the ability to achieve this potential requires oversight and governance,” OpenAI vice president of global affairs Anna Makanju said. “It is vital that AI companies–especially those working on the most powerful models–align on common ground and advance thoughtful and adaptable safety practices to ensure powerful AI tools have the broadest benefit possible. This is urgent work and this forum is well-positioned to act quickly to advance the state of AI safety.”

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