Google, OpenAI and Anthropic plan to set up their own AI safety standards body, without government oversight, The Information reported on Thursday. The three companies hope to launch it by the end of the year or early in 2027.

They tentatively plan to call it the Standards Authority for Frontier AI, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Information’s Leo Schwartz and Stephanie Palazzolo. Members of the working group have considered several well-known figures for the chief executive role. TNW has not independently verified the report.

A self-regulator on the FINRA model

The labs based the plan on FINRA, the self-regulatory organisation for US brokerage firms. Reports that followed The Information’s story say it would set standards for testing models before release, for reporting safety incidents and for certifying outside auditors. Its enforcement powers have not been set out.

The labs first wanted a body with federal oversight, according to the report. That plan stalled when a draft White House executive order failed to win enough support inside the Trump administration.

A week of calls for standards

The plan follows a busy week for AI governance. On 22 September, 21 countries and the EU called for international oversight of frontier AI. A day later, Sam Altman told the UN Security Council that OpenAI would slow down, and called for national and international standards for frontier AI.

OpenAI has also asked Washington to lead a global standards push for AI systems that improve themselves.

Critics of self-regulation

Industry self-policing has drawn criticism in recent days. Bill Gates said last week that self-regulation is not enough for AI. Former Meta executive Nick Clegg said at HumanX in Amsterdam that AI labs cannot keep regulating themselves.

The new body would cover only the three frontier labs at the start. The reports do not name Microsoft, Meta or xAI as members.