Anthropic Drops Key Safety Pledge from Responsible Scaling Policy

Anthropic has removed the core commitment from its flagship Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP), according to a TIME report. The company previously pledged in 2023 to never train an AI system unless it could guarantee in advance that its safety measures were adequate.

Policy Change Details

The company is scrapping the promise to not release AI models if Anthropic can't guarantee proper risk mitigations in advance. This was the central pillar of their Responsible Scaling Policy, which company leaders had touted for years as evidence they would withstand market incentives to rush potentially dangerous technology.

Reasoning Behind the Change

Anthropic's chief science officer Jared Kaplan told TIME: "We felt that it wouldn't actually help anyone for us to stop training AI models. We didn't really feel, with the rapid advance of AI, that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments … if competitors are blazing ahead."

The company has positioned itself as the most safety-conscious of the top AI research labs, making this policy change significant for developers tracking AI safety practices. The decision represents a shift from their previous stance of prioritizing safety guarantees over development speed.