Editing Claude AI (section)

=== Responsible Scaling Policy ===

In September 2023, Anthropic published its first '''Responsible Scaling Policy''' (RSP), a self-imposed framework that commits the company to pausing or restricting deployment if model capabilities cross predefined risk thresholds. The RSP defines a ladder of '''AI Safety Levels''' (ASLs), analogous to biosafety levels in pathogen research:<ref name="rsp3">Anthropic, ''Responsible Scaling Policy Version 3.0'', 2026.</ref>

* '''ASL-1''' — Models with no meaningful catastrophic risk.
* '''ASL-2''' — Models requiring standard deployment and security safeguards; covers Claude models through Claude 3.7.
* '''ASL-3''' — Activated for Claude Opus 4 (May 2025); requires enhanced internal security and deployment restrictions targeting potential weapons-of-mass-destruction misuse.
* '''ASL-4 and beyond''' — Thresholds intentionally left partially undefined pending better capability characterization.

The RSP has been updated multiple times (v2 in 2024, v3 in early 2026), with each iteration refining capability evaluation methods and safeguard specifications. Anthropic cites the RSP as a framework it hopes will be adopted industrywide, or inform government regulation.