Voluntary Industry Initiatives in Frontier AI Governance: Lessons from Aviation and Nuclear Power

20 January 2025

Morgan Simpson, Alejandro Ortega and Robert Trager

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As voluntary, industry-led safety initiatives take on an increasingly central role in strategies to reduce risks from frontier AI systems, they deserve greater scrutiny. This paper addresses this need for scrutiny by examining two industries—aviation and nuclear power—where human safety is paramount and industry consortia have been key to improving safety outcomes. By examining these sectors, we demonstrate how voluntary safety initiatives can serve an important function in the governance of frontier AI systems, leveraging the expertise and resources of frontier AI firms to address emerging risks. With the recent formation of two AI industry consortia—the Frontier Model Forum (FMF) and the US AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC)—it is increasingly important to understand how voluntary safety initiatives can mitigate AI risks without imposing excessive burdens on firms. This paper offers five recommendations for industry consortia, including FMF and AISIC, and two for national regulators, all aimed at enhancing frontier AI safety. These recommendations are based on eight lessons from voluntary safety measures in aviation (lessons 1–4) and nuclear power (lessons 5–8). Our analysis draws on regulatory documents, expert assessments of voluntary initiatives, industry reports, incident statistics, and case histories, allowing us to qualify and contextualise our findings for frontier AI governance.