US weighs antitrust guidance on AI safety after Anthropic CEO calls for rivals to coordinate

The US Department of Justice is signaling that it’s open to letting AI companies work together on safety without triggering antitrust alarms. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said at Fordham University on September 17 that the DOJ does not currently view coordination among companies on AI safety issues as anticompetitive. The statement lands at a peculiar moment. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently called on the US government for a narrow antitrust waiver that would let competing AI labs coordinate on slowing development and setting common safety standards. The gap between talk and action Woodward’s remarks suggest the DOJ is considering updating its existing guidelines on collaboration in cybersecurity to potentially cover AI security as well. That would give companies a clearer legal framework for working together on safety protocols without worrying about a lawsuit landing on their desk. Despite all the public hand-wringing about AI safety and the calls for regulatory clarity, not a single frontier AI lab has actually requested a meeting with the Antitrust Division to discuss these legal concerns. Part of the confusion traces back to December 2024, when the DOJ withdr...