Catastrophic Risk
Plain-language explanation
A term used in frontier AI safety law for specified extremely severe harms or risks. The exact definition depends on the applicable law and should not be treated as universal.
Why It Matters
Catastrophic-risk laws establish special duties for certain frontier AI developers, while the underlying focus on extreme severity can also inform broader risk analysis without extending those legal duties to organizations outside scope.
In Practice
Illinois defines catastrophic risk using specific severity thresholds and specified frontier-model scenarios. California’s Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act also uses catastrophic-risk concepts within its own statutory framework.
Practitioners should use the definition from the law that actually applies. A severe AI risk should not automatically be labeled a legally defined catastrophic risk.
AuditDIFF separately uses maximum credible harm as a practitioner lens for reasoning about severe but reasonably foreseeable outcomes. That concept does not replace a statutory definition.