Catastrophic Risk

A foreseeable, material risk of causing death or serious injury to 50 or more people, or property damage of $1 billion or more, from a single incident involving (1) expert‑level assistance in creating/releasing/using CBRN weapons, (2) conduct without meaningful human oversight constituting cyberattacks or serious crimes, or (3) the model evading developer control; excludes harms from public information, lawful federal actions, or where the model did not materially contribute.

A foreseeable and material risk that a frontier developer's activities related to a frontier model could materially contribute to the death or serious injury of more than 50 people, or over $1,000,000,000 in property damage or loss from a single incident. This includes misuse for weapons, cyberattacks, or evasion of control.

Refers to potential harms from AI systems that could lead to widespread severe negative consequences, such as critical infrastructure failure, mass casualties, or significant economic disruption.

As defined by the Act, catastrophic risk includes scenarios where an AI model could cause death or serious injury to 50 or more individuals, or result in damages exceeding $1 billion. It also covers situations where an AI system provides expert assistance in creating or releasing chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons, autonomously commits major crimes or cyberattacks, or evades developer control.