Latest news with #CAISI
Technical.ly
05-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Commerce Department nixes ‘safety' in NIST AI institute rebrand
President Trump's cabinet continues to overhaul federal programs and initiatives, with some recent AI-related moves hitting the Department of Commerce. Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that the AI Safety Institute will now be called the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI). In addition to removing 'safety' from the title of the agency, which was created under the Biden administration in 2023 to set AI standards and guidance, CAISI will pivot to focus more on national security risks and global competitiveness. 'For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards,' Lutnick said in a press release. 'CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards.' The Commerce Department did not respond to request for comment, including to provide examples of 'censorship.' CAISI also houses a consortium, established in 2024, of more than 200 companies and organizations that was originally created to develop science-based safety standards for AI operation and design. The group, known as the US AI Safety Institute Consortium, includes several universities and startups from throughout the Mid-Atlantic. That group remains in operation following this announcement, but there are suspicions that it will shut down, according to a person with knowledge about the consortium. CAISI and the consortium's formation under the previous administration was spurred by an executive order by former President Joe Biden, which the Trump administration revoked during his early days in office. Priorities for this newly-renamed government body include plans to ink voluntary agreements with AI developers and companies that can pinpoint risks to national security. That strategy isn't entirely new. Under the Biden administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology — the regulatory agency, housed under the Commerce Department, that hosts CAISI — signed memoranda of understanding to undergo AI safety research with US-based AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. In these new evaluations, CAISI will prioritize looking at use cases in cybersecurity and chemical weapons, per the release. CAISI leadership will also collaborate with the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies to 'conduct evaluations and assessments.' This move comes as states are grappling with how to regulate AI. Nearby Virginia did not follow through with passing blanket legislation regulating the technology, and House Republicans are torn over a federal budget provision that would ban states from regulating AI for a decade.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump administration cuts 'Safety' from AI Safety Institute
The Trump administration says it's reforming a Biden-era artificial intelligence safety institute, renaming and reformulating one of the only federal government departments dedicated to oversight of the burgeoning technology. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a news release Tuesday that the Trump administration would transform the former U.S. AI Safety Institute — which former President Joe Biden established in November 2023 — into the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. The reframing away from 'safety' is in line with the Trump administration's statements and actions signaling its belief that oversight efforts for AI companies could unnecessarily dull the United States' competitive edge in the space. 'For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards,' Lutnick said in the release. 'CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards.' The U.S. AI Safety Institute was created to evaluate and test AI models and create standards for safety and security. It also formed a consortium on AI safety, which was made up of over 200 members, including OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic. Although it's unclear whether the transformation will mean any major changes to the institute's operations, the move appears to reflect the Trump administration's 'pro-innovation' approach to deregulating AI technology. Unlike Biden's executive order on AI and the former institute, the reformed center is set to focus on additional aspects like evaluating 'potential security vulnerabilities and malign foreign influence arising from use of adversaries' AI systems, including the possibility of backdoors and other covert, malicious behavior,' as well as 'guard against burdensome and unnecessary regulation of American technologies by foreign governments.' In January, the Chinese-created AI app DeepSeek heightened national security concerns around AI with its latest release, which made waves with its advancements. President Donald Trump said the app 'should be a wake-up call' about the prospect of international competition for American tech companies. Lawmakers introduced a bill to ban DeepSeek from government devices, and the Navy advised its members not to use it 'in any capacity.' The move to reform the institute appears to have been in development for a while. Reuters reported this year that no one from the U.S. AI Safety Institute's staff would attend an AI summit in Paris in February alongside Vice President JD Vance. The institute's inaugural director, Elizabeth Kelly, also announced she would step down that month. In his speech at the summit, Vance echoed Lutnick's sentiments, saying, 'We need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it.' He also spoke about how he believes AI should be free from 'ideological bias.' Since he returned to office, Trump has made it clear that his administration wants to embrace the expansion of AI. Within his first week, Trump announced the creation of the $500 billion Stargate initiative in collaboration with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, which aims to make the United States a world leader in AI. Trump also signed an executive order on AI in his first week in office that focuses on easing regulations on AI technology and revoking 'existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to American AI innovation.' Biden's executive order on AI, which focused on safety and privacy standards for the technology, has been scrapped from the White House's website. This article was originally published on
NBC News
04-06-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Trump administration cuts 'Safety' from AI Safety Institute
The Trump administration says it's reforming a Biden-era artificial intelligence safety institute, renaming and reformulating one of the only federal government departments dedicated to oversight of the burgeoning technology. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a news release Tuesday that the Trump administration would transform the former U.S. AI Safety Institute — which former President Joe Biden established in November 2023 — into the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. The reframing away from 'safety' is in line with the Trump administration's statements and actions signaling its belief that oversight efforts for AI companies could unnecessarily dull the United States' competitive edge in the space. 'For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards,' Lutnick said in the release. 'CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards.' The U.S. AI Safety Institute was created to evaluate and test AI models and create standards for safety and security. It also formed a consortium on AI safety, which was made up of over 200 members, including OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic. Although it's unclear whether the transformation will mean any major changes to the institute's operations, the move appears to reflect the Trump administration's 'pro-innovation' approach to deregulating AI technology. Unlike Biden's executive order on AI and the former institute, the reformed center is set to focus on additional aspects like evaluating 'potential security vulnerabilities and malign foreign influence arising from use of adversaries' AI systems, including the possibility of backdoors and other covert, malicious behavior,' as well as 'guard against burdensome and unnecessary regulation of American technologies by foreign governments.' In January, the Chinese-created AI app DeepSeek heightened national security concerns around AI with its latest release, which made waves with its advancements. President Donald Trump said the app 'should be a wake-up call' about the prospect of international competition for American tech companies. Lawmakers introduced a bill to ban DeepSeek from government devices, and the Navy advised its members not to use it 'in any capacity.' The move to reform the institute appears to have been in development for a while. Reuters reported this year that no one from the U.S. AI Safety Institute's staff would attend an AI summit in Paris in February alongside Vice President JD Vance. The institute's inaugural director, Elizabeth Kelly, also announced she would step down that month. In his speech at the summit, Vance echoed Lutnick's sentiments, saying, 'We need international regulatory regimes that fosters the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it.' He also spoke about how he believes AI should be free from 'ideological bias.' Since he returned to office, Trump has made it clear that his administration wants to embrace the expansion of AI. Within his first week, Trump announced the creation of the $500 billion Stargate initiative in collaboration with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, which aims to make the United States a world leader in AI. Trump also signed an executive order on AI in his first week in office that focuses on easing regulations on AI technology and revoking 'existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to American AI innovation.' Biden's executive order on AI, which focused on safety and privacy standards for the technology, has been scrapped from the White House's website.
Forbes
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
The Wiretap: Trump Says Goodbye To The AI Safety Institute
The Wiretap is your weekly digest of cybersecurity, internet privacy and surveillance news. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) The Trump administration has announced plans to reorganize the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI) into the new Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI). Set up by the Biden administration in 2023, AISI operated within the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) to research risks in widely-used AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude. The move to dismantle the body had been expected for some time. In February, as JD Vance headed to France for a major AI summit, his delegation did not include anyone from the AI Safety Institute, Reuters reported at the time. The agency's inaugural director Elizabeth Kelly had stepped down earlier in the month. The Commerce Department's announcement marking the change is thin on details about the reorganization, but it appears the aim is to favor innovation over red tape. 'For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards. CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards,' said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. What could be gleaned from Lutnick's paradoxical phrasing – national security-focused standards are limiting, but America needs national security-focused standards – is that it's very difficult to tell just how much the new body will differ from the old one. The announcement goes on to state that CAISI will 'assist industry to develop voluntary standards' in AI, which summed up much of what the old body did. Similarly, just as the AI Safety Institute was tasked with assessing risks in artificial intelligence, CAISI will 'lead unclassified evaluations of AI capabilities that may pose risks to national security.' CAISI will also still be a part of NIST. And, despite Lutnick's apparent disdain for standards, the Commerce press release concludes that CAISI will 'ensure U.S. dominance of international AI standards.' That there's little obvious change between the Institute and CAISI might alleviate any immediate concerns the U.S. is abandoning commitments to keep AI safe. Just earlier this year, a coalition of companies, nonprofits and academics called on Congress to codify the Institute's existence before the year was up. That included major players like OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which had agreements to work with the agency on research projects. What happens to those is now up in the air. The Commerce Department hadn't responded to a series of questions at the time of publication, and NIST declined to comment. Got a tip on surveillance or cybercrime? Get me on Signal at +1 929-512-7964. (Photo by Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images) Unknown individuals have impersonated President Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles in calls and texts to Republican lawmakers and business executives. Investigators suspect the perpetrators used artificial intelligence to clone Wiles' voice. One lawmaker was asked by the impersonator to assemble a list of individuals for potential presidential pardons, according to the Wall Street Journal. It's unclear that motives lay behind the impersonation, or how they pulled the stunt off. Wiles had told confidantes that some of her contacts from her personal phone had been stolen by a hacker. A Texas police officer searched Flock Safety's AI-powered surveillance camera network to track down a woman who had carried out a self-administered abortion, 404 Media reports. Because the search was conducted across different states, experts raised concerns about police using Flock to track down individuals getting abortions in states where it's legal before going back home to a state where it's illegal. The cops said they were simply worried about the woman's safety. Nathan Vilas Laatsch, a 28-year-old IT specialist at the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been arrested and charged with leaking state secrets after becoming upset at the Trump administration. The DOJ did not specify to which country Laatsch allegedly tried to pass secrets, sources told the Washington Post it was Germany. He was caught out by undercover agents posing as interested parties, according to the DOJ. Europol announced it had identified more than 2,000 links 'pointing to jihadist and right-wing violent extremist and terrorist propaganda targeting minors.' The agency warned that it had seen terrorists using AI to generate content like short videos and memes 'designed to resonate with younger audiences.' A 63-year-old British man, John Miller, was charged alongside a Chinese national by the Department of Justice with conspiring to ship missiles, air defense radar, drones and unspecified 'cryptographic devices' to China. They're also charged with trying to stalk and harass an individual who was planning protests against Chinese president Xi.
