Anthropic tops AI safety index with C+, OpenAI close behind with a C

The AI industry’s best safety performers just earned the equivalent of a “meets minimum expectations” on their report card. Anthropic and OpenAI claimed the top two spots in the Future of Life Institute’s Summer 2026 AI Safety Index, but their grades, C+ and C respectively, suggest the bar for “best in class” remains remarkably low. Anthropic led the pack with a score of 2.66 out of 4.0, while OpenAI trailed slightly at 2.28. The full scorecard The FLI index evaluates leading AI developers across six domains and 37 specific indicators, covering everything from transparency and governance to risk assessment and safety frameworks. Google DeepMind earned a C with a score of 2.01, placing it in third position. Meta scored a D+ at 1.67. xAI, DeepSeek, and Mistral all received outright F grades. Anthropic distinguished itself by leading in five of the six evaluation domains, with particularly strong marks for transparency, governance, and its Responsible Scaling Policy. OpenAI’s best showing came in the Risk Assessment domain, where it outperformed all competitors. The index is produced biannually by a panel of experts that includes Stuart Russell and David Krueger. It uses a US GPA-styl...