In a strategic move following major legislative developments, Anthropic has unveiled a comprehensive transparency framework for frontier AI systems that could reshape industry standards for safety and accountability.
On July 7, 2025, just days after the U.S. Senate voted 99-1 to remove a controversial 10-year moratorium on state AI regulations from President Trump's domestic policy bill, Anthropic introduced what it calls a "targeted transparency framework" designed to balance innovation with responsible development.
The framework deliberately targets only the largest AI developers while shielding smaller companies and startups from potentially burdensome requirements. Anthropic proposes specific thresholds—such as annual revenue exceeding $100 million or R&D expenditures over $1 billion—to determine which companies would be subject to the framework's disclosure obligations.
"While industry, governments, academia, and others work to develop agreed-upon safety standards and comprehensive evaluation methods—a process that could take months to years—we need interim steps to ensure that very powerful AI is developed securely, responsibly, and transparently," Anthropic stated in its announcement.
At the framework's core is the requirement for qualifying companies to develop and publicly disclose a "Secure Development Framework" detailing how they assess and mitigate serious risks, including those related to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear misuse, as well as potential harms from misaligned model autonomy. Companies would also need to publish system cards summarizing testing procedures and implement whistleblower protections.
The proposal has earned praise from AI advocacy groups, with Eric Gastfriend, executive director at Americans for Responsible Innovation, noting: "Anthropic's framework advances some of the basic transparency requirements we need, like releasing plans for mitigating risks and holding developers accountable to those plans." The framework's lightweight and flexible approach acknowledges the rapidly evolving nature of AI technology while establishing baseline expectations for responsible development.