Background checks
Background checks for lab staff. A standard background check for all lab employees, with no clearance-level vetting.
What it does
Everyone who works at a frontier lab passes a standard background check, like the checks many banks and hospitals run. Nobody needs a security clearance.
Applies to: All employees of frontier developers.
- Background checks for all employees (RAND security level 3).
- Risk-based screening scaled to access, rather than blanket exclusion (as proposed in Just Security, 2026).
Where things stand
Many labs already run some background screening. None publish how thorough it is.
Why it costs almost no lead
Standard checks barely slow hiring and make insider theft slightly harder. The two effects roughly cancel.
Biggest unknown: How much insider risk standard checks remove, which nobody has measured.
Why it lowers p(doom) by ~0.03%
Makes it harder for spies or bad actors to get jobs inside frontier labs.
Background checks make insider threats slightly harder but won't stop a determined state spy.
The strongest case that it costs more
Even light checks can deter strong candidates who value privacy, and they can be applied unevenly to foreign-born researchers. If that pushes a few key people to labs abroad, the cost is larger than a few days.
Sources
- RAND, Securing AI Model Weights (2024): background checks for all employees at SL3
- Just Security, Vetting foreign AI talent: security without exclusion (2026)
Rough starting points, not precise forecasts. Lead costs assume China doesn't depend on U.S. models, the case least favorable to safety laws, and count 3 years. On the menu you can change every assumption and put in your own numbers. Last priced 2026-09-26.