Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic have approached Sriram Krishnan, the former senior White House policy adviser on AI, to serve as chief executive of a proposed self-regulatory body tentatively called the Frontier AI Standards Agency, per AI Weekly. It would set standards for testing and reporting safety issues, is modeled on FINRA, the brokerage industry's self-regulator, and is aimed at launching by late 2026 or early 2027.
This is reported. None of the three companies has announced it. The proposed pillars are shared technical evaluations, pre-release audits, independent testing frameworks, and standardized safety protocols. A FINRA model means industry funding and industry-selected leadership. No statutory authority sits behind the rules. OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said on September 15 that the three had been coordinating on safety for several weeks.
We wrote on Monday that the pacing lawsuit would push safety coordination toward government processes or standards bodies. A Sherman Act claim needs an agreement among rivals, and a formal standards organization is defensible ground. A body with published procedures, outside leadership, and open membership is a harder antitrust target than a private pledge among four chief executives. It also takes shape while those same companies answer a complaint treating their last coordinated move as restraint of trade.
Bottom Line
A private standards body with no statutory power is the labs' answer to both the antitrust suit and the gap in federal rules. Watch whether membership is open and whether findings get published, because a self-regulator that reports only to its funders sets no floor anyone else can rely on.