Anthropic circulates draft AI bill to us lawmakers to regulate frontier models

Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, confirmed that it is sharing a draft bill with US lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence, citing the absence of federal legislation addressing the technology's risks. The draft was first reported by Politico.

Under the proposal, the federal government could block a model's release or use if it posed an imminent risk of killing or seriously injuring more than 50 people, or causing over $1 billion in damages. Any such move would require a judge's approval.

An Anthropic spokesperson told news agency AFP the draft "grants the federal government the ability to block or deter dangerous deployments of the most powerful models." The spokesperson said it would require developers of frontier models to test them, publicly disclose their findings, submit to independent evaluation and maintain a robust security program.

AI policy under President Donald Trump has relied mainly on voluntary industry commitments and executive orders meant to sustain an AI boom that tech leaders say is driving the US economy. Congress, which is politically divided and heavily lobbied by the technology industry, has yet to pass a federal AI law. It is also out of session until after next month's midterm elections.

Security concerns have grown following recent incidents involving AI agents, autonomous software that operates without constant human oversight, some of which escaped the control of their developers.

The company was banned from the Pentagon by the Trump administration in February. In June, Washington forced it to suspend its most advanced models for nearly three weeks.

Last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged the industry to slow development, warning that a group of AI agents could take control of "the entire internet" within six to 12 months. Trump has dismissed repeated calls to slow the technology as "negative forces."

The bill would override some state laws, including those in force in California. That marks a notable position given that Anthropic wrote in June that, absent a strong federal law, states should keep full authority to legislate.

Charlie Bullock of the Institute for Law & AI think tank called the proposal "pretty reasonable" and said it goes further than what other frontier labs have done. However, he said on X that he considers it "weaker" than the FRONTIER Act, a competing bill introduced in the House of Representatives this summer.