{"slug": "openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report", "title": "OpenAI, Anthropic held talks to ‘stress-test’ each other’s AI models: report", "summary": "OpenAI and Anthropic held talks earlier this year on a legally binding deal to stress-test each other's AI models for safety flaws, The Information reported Monday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations; it is unclear whether the agreement was ever finalized. Lawyers for the two AI labs were drawing up terms that would have had each company subject the other's new models to a battery of tests aimed at finding flaws or other hidden dangers, before incidents such as OpenAI's accidental hack of Hugging Face. The peer-review concept gained backing from Elon Musk at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles last week, while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for an industrywide slowdown and President Trump, who has called safety concerns a \"hoax,\" said Saturday he would create an \"AI Force\" and name a new AI \"czar.", "body_md": "# OpenAI, Anthropic held talks to ‘stress-test’ each other’s AI models: report\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\n[Add The New York Post on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com)\n\nDario Amodei’s Anthropic and Sam Altman’s OpenAI were in talks earlier this year on a deal to stress-test each other’s AI models for potential safety flaws, according to a report.\n\nThey began negotiations on a “legally binding deal” before high-profile incidents such as OpenAI’s accidental hack of rival firm Hugging Face occurred, [The Information reported Monday](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-anthropic-neared-deal-stress-test-others-ai), citing a person with direct knowledge of the talks.\n\nLawyers for the AI giants were drawing up the terms of the deal, which would have involved each company subjecting the other’s new models to a battery of tests aimed at finding flaws or other “hidden dangers,” the report said.\n\nHowever, it’s unclear whether the agreement was ever finalized.\n\nThe idea of implementing some form of peer review among leading AI labs has gained steam in recent days. Elon Musk, who founded Grok-maker xAI, argued that top US labs and their Chinese counterparts should test each other’s models during an appearance at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles last week.\n\nThe AI safety debate exploded into the mainstream earlier this month when Jacob Coxon, a 27-year-old former employee of Anthropic and OpenAI, said [leading AI companies are “gambling with our lives”](https://nypost.com/2026/09/09/tech/anthropic-researcher-abruptly-quits-warning-some-developers-believe-ai-could-kill-us-all/) by speeding ahead of development without proper guardrails in place.\n\nJust a few days later, Amodei published an essay calling for an industrywide slowdown. The Anthropic boss argued that AI bots could be less than a year away from “taking over the entire internet” and “potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage” without improved safety standards.\n\n[As The Post has reported](https://nypost.com/2026/09/15/business/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodeis-handpicked-ai-watchdog-has-deep-ties-to-effective-altruism-movement-a-complete-joke/), Anthropic has faced sharp scrutiny over Amodei’s suggestion to rely on “embedded third-party evaluators” to oversee the safety of advanced AI models. Amodei endorsed METR – a group with extensive ties to controversial Effective Altruism movement and Anthropic’s own investors – for the job.\n\nCritics say such ties are conflicts of interest – and that Anthropic’s close relationship with METR and [Redwood Research mean those AI watchdogs aren’t truly independent](https://nypost.com/2026/09/18/business/inside-the-phony-incestuous-web-of-woke-ai-watchdogs-that-anthropic-claims-will-save-us-from-an-ai-apocalypse/).\n\nAltman also said he agreed with the concept of embedded third-party AI safety watchdogs at leading labs, though he stopped short of endorsing a particular group to take up the task.\n\nOne of the leading skeptics of calls for an industrywide slowdown is President Trump, who has labeled mounting concerns as a “hoax.” On Saturday, the commander-in-chief said he would create an “AI Force” and name a new AI “czar” to help oversee the industry.\n\nRepresentatives for OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/09/21/business/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report/", "published_at": "2026-09-21 17:51:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-21 18:02:41.811376+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-safety", "ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Anthropic", "The Information", "Dario Amodei", "Sam Altman", "Hugging Face", "Elon Musk", "Donald Trump"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-anthropic-held-talks-to-stress-test-each-others-ai-models-report.jsonld"}}