When it comes to AI, the Trump Administration has largely positioned itself as the opposite of the Biden White House—criticizing what Trump’s tech policy advisors saw as overly burdensome AI safety efforts and licensing regimes, and embracing an anti-regulation approach. Former Trump “AI and crypto czar” David Sacks best embodied this policy ethos.
But the Trump Administration, according to multiple news reports, is now about to engage in a head-spinning policy pirouette. Driven by concerns about the national security implications of Anthropic’s new “Mythos” AI model, with its ability to identify and exploit cyber security vulnerabilities—as well as broader fears around cyber capabilities and dangerous misuse—the administration is now reportedly considering oversight for advanced AI models. The policies under discussion, according to news reports, include an executive order that would create a government-industry working group to examine how frontier AI systems should be evaluated before release.
At the same time, the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) — the Trump administration’s renamed version of the Biden-era United States AI Safety Institute — announced partnerships with Google, Microsoft, and xAI to evaluate some AI models before deployment.
