ICYMI: Public Knowledge Calls the FRONTIER Act “the best proposal (so far)” for Reining In Frontier AI

In a new analysis, the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge backed Congresswoman Lori Trahan (D-MA-03) and Congressman Jay Obernolte’s (R-CA-23) Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation, and Reporting (FRONTIER) Act, calling it the strongest proposal yet to manage the risks of the most powerful AI systems. “The frontier needs real rules, not voluntary guardrails. That requires binding legal regimes for evaluating and managing the risks from frontier models: as they are being developed, before they are deployed, and after they are in widespread use,” wrote Nicholas Garcia, Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge. “The best proposal (so far) to move past frameworks, lists of principles, or nibbling at the edges of this challenge is the ‘Frontier Risk Oversight, National Transparency, Independent Evaluation, and Reporting (FRONTIER) Act’ from Representatives Jay Obernolte and Lori Trahan.” “For years, Public Knowledge has been one of the most serious and principled voices fighting to protect the public from the risks posed by cutting edge technologies. When they engaged in the discussion draft process, we took their criticisms seriously and worked with them to address their concerns,” said Congresswoman Trahan . “That kind of rigorous, good-faith feedback is a big reason the FRONTIER Act is the strongest frontier AI safety legislation ever introduced. Public Knowledge’s support is critical as we work to broaden the coalition backing this bipartisan bill and push for its consideration. We’re in a race against the clock right now, and Congress needs to act before the next major incident.” The FRONTIER Act would establish a tiered, risk-based national framework for overseeing the most advanced AI models. It requires the largest developers to publish their safety frameworks, submit to independent third-party audits and verification, and report critical safety incidents to a new Under Secretary of Commerce for AI Security. The bill is an updated version of the Commerce-focused portions of Trahan and Obernolte's Great American AI Act (GAAIA) discussion draft. The sponsors reworked it over seven weeks of stakeholder feedback, narrowing its preemption of state law and sharpening its auditing and reporting provisions. Public Knowledge's endorsement marks a notable evolution. When the sponsors released the GAAIA discussion draft in June, Public Knowledge opposed it , warning that its preemption clause reached too far and would lock states out of even light-touch AI transparency and evaluation rules. At the same time, the group made clear it was ready to work with the sponsors to get the policy right. Trahan and Obernolte took that feedback and rewrote the bill. When they introduced the FRONTIER Act in July, the preemption had been narrowed to cover only the catastrophic-risk issues the federal framework itself addresses, leaving state authority over child safety, privacy, consumer protection, and procurement intact. That change answered Public Knowledge's central concern, and the group now backs the bill. Public Knowledge joins a broad, bipartisan coalition of AI policy experts and organizations that have praised the FRONTIER Act as the strongest federal AI safety proposal introduced to date. Read the full analysis HERE . ###