Aug 29 (Reuters) - AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic have

signed deals with the United States government for research,

testing and evaluation of their artificial intelligence models,

the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute said on

Thursday.

The first-of-their-kind agreements come at a time when the

companies are facing regulatory scrutiny over safe and ethical

use of AI technologies.

California legislators are set to vote on a bill as soon as

this week to broadly regulate how AI is developed and deployed

in the state.

Under the deals, the U.S. AI Safety Institute will have

access to major new models from both OpenAI and Anthropic prior

to and following their public release.

The agreements will also enable collaborative research to

evaluate capabilities of the AI models and risks associated with

them.

"We believe the institute has a critical role to play in

defining U.S. leadership in responsibly developing artificial

intelligence and hope that our work together offers a framework

that the rest of the world can build on," said Jason Kwon, chief

strategy officer at ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Anthropic, which is backed by Amazon ( AMZN ) and Alphabet

, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for

comment.

"These agreements are just the start, but they are an

important milestone as we work to help responsibly steward the

future of AI," said Elizabeth Kelly, director of the U.S. AI

Safety Institute.

The institute, a part of the U.S. commerce department's

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will also

collaborate with the U.K. AI Safety Institute and provide

feedback to the companies on potential safety improvements.

The U.S. AI Safety Institute was launched last year as part

of an executive order by President Joe Biden's administration to

evaluate known and emerging risks of artificial intelligence

models.