What's happening
Anthropic wants Congress to set strict limits on when federal authorities can stop advanced AI models from reaching users. A confidential draft bill obtained by POLITICO would tie government intervention to specific catastrophic threats and require judicial approval for suspensions.
Intervention threshold
Under the proposal, federal authorities could seek to halt a model only when it presents a foreseeable, imminent threat. Qualifying risks must involve more than $1 billion in damages or the deaths or serious injuries of over 50 people. The bill limits those threats to three scenarios: creating or releasing biological weapons, models escaping their developers' controls, or cyberattacks.
Oversight and courts
Independent evaluators would register with the Commerce Department and periodically assess frontier AI developers and their models. If an assessment identifies an imminent threat covered by the bill, evaluators must notify Commerce within 72 hours. The Commerce Department could not independently shut down a model; it would need an order from a federal judge in the District Court for the District of Columbia. The draft also bars other federal departments and officials from suspending a model's development, deployment, or internal use.
The broader debate
The bill would also preempt certain state requirements covering public risk disclosures, independent evaluations, and critical incident reporting, potentially reigniting disputes over a national standard versus stronger state protections. Anthropic's narrower approach enters a crowded legislative debate that includes the FRONTIER Act and Senate proposals targeting catastrophic AI risks.
