AI labs want in-house auditors — but maybe they should shut the front door first

Last weekend, after one of his researchers resigned over fears that AI could lead to human extinction, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote about the need for outside organizations “to verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents, and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models but training pipelines and processes.” Executives at OpenAI, Google and SpaceXAI have already rallied around Amodei’s plan, which has quickly become a central pillar of the emerging AI safety push.

But there may be a simpler and more effective fix hiding in plain sight. Internet security experts say the labs need to focus on network security basics like logs and permissions, applying the same rigorous defenses they do for human users. It’s not as exciting as third-party auditing and alignment work—but it may end up being more effective.