AI Reports · GovAI (Oxford) · 2026-10-17 · Policy position
AI Lab Policy Assessing Risk Relative to Competitors: An Analysis of Current AI Company Policies October 2025 Policy Brief Sophie Williams, Noemi Dreksler, Aidan Homewood, Markus Anderljung, Jonas Fre
Some AI companies include provisions in their safety frameworks that let them lower their mitigations if a competitor releases a model with similar capabilities but weaker mitigations. The authors argue this approach could increase total risk, since competitors' capabilities and mitigations are hard to evaluate and accident risks scale with user numbers. They also warn that safety standards could erode suddenly, if one defector triggers others, or gradually through a 'boiling frog' effect.