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AI Glossary

What is Critical Safety Incident?

Insta's plain English

A serious AI safety event that frontier developers must report fast (15 days — or 24 hours if life-threatening) under the GAAIA draft.

A critical safety incident is a serious AI-related safety event that, under the GAAIA draft, a frontier developer must report to the regulator within a tight deadline — within 15 days, or 24 hours if it poses an imminent risk of death or serious injury.

Defined in the Great American AI Act (discussion draft). Read it in context →

The full picture

The GAAIA discussion draft creates a mandatory incident-reporting duty: when a critical safety incident occurs, a frontier developer must file a report with the regulator (CAISI) within 15 days — or within 24 hours if the incident poses an imminent risk of death or serious injury. State attorneys general may also opt to receive these reports.

This mirrors breach-notification and adverse-event reporting regimes in other industries: serious problems must be surfaced quickly, not buried. For businesses, it signals that frontier-AI safety failures would become reportable events with regulatory visibility — improving the information available about real-world AI risks over time.

📌 Real business example

A company building on a frontier model factors mandatory incident reporting into its vendor risk plan, knowing serious safety events at the vendor would be formally reported rather than hidden.

How different roles use this

Risk officer
Incorporates AI incident-reporting timelines into vendor risk and continuity planning.
Compliance lead
Tracks the 15-day / 24-hour reporting duties as part of the frontier-AI compliance picture.
Executive
Sees mandatory incident reporting as raising transparency around real AI safety failures.

Common questions

Q: How fast must incidents be reported?
Under the GAAIA draft, within 15 days — or within 24 hours if the incident poses an imminent risk of death or serious injury.
Q: Who has to report?
The duty falls on frontier developers. Reports go to the regulator (CAISI), and state attorneys general can opt to receive them too.

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