Anthropic's AI Shutdown Rules
Anthropic's draft bill sets $1 billion or 50 deaths as federal AI shutdown thresholds.
In brief
Anthropic's draft bill sets $1 billion or 50 deaths as federal AI shutdown thresholds. Anthropic's draft bill requires federal action only for AI models posing imminent risks of over $1 billion in damage or 50+ deaths. Originally reported by Pymnts.
Draft Bill Thresholds
Anthropic's draft bill would let the federal government block a frontier AI model only on a foreseeable, imminent risk of more than $1 billion in damage or more than 50 deaths or serious injuries.
No Lower Tier for Action
The draft sets no lower tier, so a risk to 10 people or $200 million in losses would trigger no federal action, and it gives regulators no method for putting a dollar figure on an…
Commerce Department Role
Anthropic wants the Commerce Department to run the process.But the shutdown decision rests with the court.The Commerce Department would have to persuade a federal judge in the U.S.
Independent Evaluators
Independent evaluators, which developers could pay but whose compensation could not depend on their findings, could register with the department and assess each frontier developer’s safety practices and each model’s capabilities on a recurring schedule.
72-Hour Reporting Window
If an assessment finds an imminent risk of a biological weapon, a cyberattack or a model escaping its controls, the evaluator has 72 hours after finishing to report it to the department.
Pricing Attacks Before They Happen
The trigger is a forecast with a dollar figure attached. An evaluator, then the Commerce Department, then a judge would each have to agree that a model’s capabilities, after accounting for its safeguards, make $1…
Casualty Threshold Concerns
Sneha Revanur, founder and president of the AI safety group Encode, questioned why the government should have to show a model could harm 50 people before it may act, and not 49 or fewer.
AI Breach Costs
AI-enabled breaches averaged $6 million each in IBM’s 2026 study, and those losses add up across thousands of incidents without any single one crossing the $1 billion line.
What to remember
Anthropic's draft bill requires federal action only for AI models posing imminent risks of over $1 billion in damage or 50+ deaths.
