LW - On DeepMind's Frontier Safety Framework by Zvi

The Nonlinear Library: LessWrong

Link to original article
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: On DeepMind's Frontier Safety Framework, published by Zvi on June 18, 2024 on LessWrong.
On DeepMind's Frontier Safety Framework
Previously: On OpenAI's Preparedness Framework, On RSPs.
The First Two Frameworks
To first update on Anthropic and OpenAI's situation here:
Anthropic's RSP continues to miss the definitions of the all-important later levels, in addition to other issues, although it is otherwise promising. It has now been a number of months, and it is starting to be concerning that nothing has changed. They are due for an update.
OpenAI also has not updated its framework.
I am less down on OpenAI's framework choices than Zac Stein-Perlman was in the other review I have seen. I think that if OpenAI implemented the spirit of what it wrote down, that would be pretty good. The Critical-level thresholds listed are too high, but the Anthropic ASL-4 commitments are still unspecified. An update is needed, but I appreciate the concreteness.
The bigger issue with OpenAI is the two contexts around the framework.
First, there's OpenAI. Exactly.
A safety framework you do not adhere to is worth nothing. A safety framework where you adhere to the letter but not the spirit is not worth much.
Given what we have learned about OpenAI, and their decision to break their very public commitments about committing compute to superalignment and driving out their top safety people and failure to have a means for reporting safety issues (including retaliating against Leopold when he went to the board about cybersecurity) and also all that other stuff, why should we have any expectation that what is written down in their framework is meaningful?
What about the other practical test? Zac points out that OpenAI did not share the risk-scorecard for GPT-4o. They also did not share much of anything else. This is somewhat forgivable given the model is arguably not actually at core stronger than GPT-4 aside from its multimodality. It remains bad precedent, and an indication of bad habits and poor policy.
Then there is Microsoft. OpenAI shares all their models with Microsoft, and the framework does not apply to Microsoft at all. Microsoft's track record on safety is woeful. Their submission at the UK Summit was very weak. Their public statements around safety are dismissive, including their intention to 'make Google dance.' Microsoft Recall shows the opposite of a safety mindset, and they themselves have been famously compromised recently.
Remember Sydney? Microsoft explicitly said they got safety committee approval for their tests in India, then had to walk that back. Even what procedures they have, which are not much, they have broken. This is in practice a giant hole in OpenAI's framework.
This is in contrast to Anthropic, who are their own corporate overlord, and DeepMind, whose framework explicitly applies to all of Google.
The DeepMind Framework
DeepMind finally has its own framework. Here is the blog post version.
So first things first. Any framework at all, even a highly incomplete and unambitious one, is far better than none at all. Much better to know what plans you do have, and that they won't be enough, so we can critique and improve. So thanks to DeepMind for stepping up, no matter the contents, as long as it is not the Meta Framework.
There is extensive further work to be done, as they acknowledge. This includes all plans on dealing with misalignment. The current framework only targets misuse.
With that out of the way: Is the DeepMind framework any good?
In the Framework, we specify protocols for the detection of capability levels at which models may pose severe risks (which we call "Critical Capability Levels (CCLs)"), and articulate a spectrum of mitigation options to address such risks. We are starting with an initial set of CCLs in the domains of Autonomy, Biosecurity, Cybersec...