Common questions about what Frontier Security Institute does, how we work, and our relationship to the broader Center for AI Safety.
Frontier Security Institute is the translation layer between frontier AI and the National Security Enterprise. We aggregate findings across frontier labs that cannot legally share with one another, stress-test capability claims against the missions that will use them, and synthesize the result into the forms operators, program offices, acquisition leaders, and the Hill can act on. Frontier Security Institute is part of the Center for AI Safety, which funds our work.
A working channel between two communities — the frontier AI developers and the National Security Enterprise — that are structurally limited in how directly they can engage one another. We aggregate, anonymize, and synthesize technical findings from the labs into forms federal decision-makers can use. We translate federal decision needs into the questions the labs can address. The work is bidirectional; the output is decisions that can move.
Frontier Security Institute is the NSE-focused affiliate of the Center for AI Safety. CAIS conducts foundational research on societal-scale risks from AI. Frontier Security Institute extends that work into doctrine, acquisition, and operational decisions inside U.S. national security. Same roots, distinct mandates.
Washington, DC.
The Pentagon, the Intelligence Community, Congress, allied institutions, frontier AI labs, philanthropies focused on AI risk and U.S. strategic advantage, and partner governments.
Yes. Frontier Security Institute holds to rigorous editorial standards and a distinct mission. That rigor is the reason our work travels — analysis that lands inside government without being mistaken for advocacy, and validation that frontier labs can stand behind.
No. Our work outlasts political dynamics. We deliver capability and serve American national security across administrations. That posture is a feature, not an accident — it is what makes our analysis useful to congressional staff, program offices, and the IC across cycles.
If you build, deploy, govern, or oversee AI in a national security context, we would like to hear from you. Visit our Partner With Us page to start a conversation.