Why frontier AI safety frameworks need to include risk governance

Abstract

Frontier safety frameworks have emerged as an important upstream tool for AI companies to manage extreme risks from AI. These frameworks aim to set thresholds for powerful AI models, and specify mitigations if these thresholds are reached (re-training, delaying deployment etc). Currently, few of these frameworks include components of effective risk governance, understood as the structure, policies and processes for holistically managing risk across an organisation. This reduces the overall effectiveness of these frameworks, potentially creating silos, blurred accountabilities and unclear decision making processes when risk thresholds are being approached or reached, thereby increasing the chance of harmful models being released. This report outlines why risk governance should be enhanced in future versions of safety frameworks, along with recommendations for AI companies and Governments in the near and longer term.