June 10, 2026 Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has proposed giving the U.S. government the legal authority to block the deployment of AI models that could pose catastrophic risks. The company said models capable of enabling biological weapons development, major cybersecurity threats, uncontrolled AI behavior, or dangerous automated research should face stricter oversight before release.
In a detailed policy framework published Wednesday, Anthropic argued that current laws and proposed legislation do not provide sufficient safeguards for the most powerful AI systems. “When a model poses risks of this kind, the government should have the legal authority to block or deter its deployment,” the company said. Anthropic also proposed civil penalties tied to a company’s global annual revenue, with harsher penalties for repeated violations.
The company said developers of advanced AI systems should be required to conduct safety testing, publicly disclose findings, submit models to independent evaluations, and maintain strong security programs.
According to Anthropic, the proposed regulations should apply only to the most advanced AI models. The company suggested limiting the rules to systems trained using more than 10²⁵ floating-point operations (FLOPs) and developed by companies generating more than $500 million in AI-related revenue or spending more than $1 billion on AI research and development.
The proposal is the latest example of Anthropic advocating for stronger AI regulation as capabilities continue to advance. In a separate essay released Wednesday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei expanded on the company’s position. He argued that government agencies or authorized private organizations should independently test advanced AI models to determine their risk levels.
Amodei said evaluations should focus on four specific areas: biological weapons risks, cybersecurity threats, control over AI systems, and automated research and development capabilities. “The government should have the power to block or deter deployment of the model if it is determined, in light of third-party assessment, to present unacceptable risks,” Amodei wrote. He added that any such authority should be limited to those four risk categories and include safeguards against political favoritism or arbitrary decisions.
Anthropic’s proposals arrive as competition among major AI developers intensifies. Both Anthropic and rival AI company OpenAI are expected to pursue major public offerings later this year, placing additional attention on how governments and regulators approach oversight of increasingly powerful AI systems.
