This week, Representatives August Pfluger (R-TX) and Josh Harder (D-CA) introduced the bipartisan Reliable Artificial Intelligence Research Act (RAIRA). The legislation would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to run prize challenges to open up the talent pipeline of contributors to AI assurance research, which is critical to proactively identify misaligned behavior. As worries about the capabilities of frontier AI models mount, ARI endorsed the bill as a practical step toward bolstering the security and trustworthiness of AI systems as they are increasingly integrated into the United States’ most sensitive agencies, including defense and intelligence.
“Frontier AI companies are building advanced AI models faster than even they themselves can explain how those models think and act. As the major labs continue to report the occurrence of dangerous incidents, we must tap into our existing talent to strengthen AI research,” said ARI President Brad Carson. “Prize challenges will allow the government to expand the field of AI assurance research so we can understand why models make the decisions they do before an AI crisis devastates our most high-risk systems.”
Following the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, ARI released an explainer describing why labs lack the incentives to fund the amount of assurance research needed to match the pace of AI development and how the government could fill the gap. Since then, OpenAI and Anthropic have disclosed additional incidents of misaligned behavior from their models, increasing the urgency to strengthen the AI assurance field.
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