White House readies AI framework to review security risks
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By DAVID McCABE, MIKE ISAAC, KATE CONGER and ANA SWANSON
In a meeting earlier this week with top artificial intelligence companies, White House officials said the federal government planned to review only certain types of artificial intelligence models for potential security risks and not others, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
The AI models the government plans to review are known as “closed” models, which do not publish their underlying code and are made by companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, according to three of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the meeting were private.
The administration does not plan to review “open source” AI models, which have computer code available to the public to download and modify, although that could change as the technology advances, the people said.
The moves are an effort by the Trump administration to take a more hands-on approach to regulating AI, and they formalize oversight of leading AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. But they delay addressing some of the most pressing regulatory issues with the technology, including potential threats posed by increasingly powerful open-source models made by Chinese companies.
The decision to exclude open-source models could also be a boon for companies that are trying to catch up to Anthropic and OpenAI, which are widely considered leaders in developing next-generation AI. Some companies, like Meta, have used open-source software to create products to directly compete with the two leading startups.
The framework, which comes after months of private discussions between administration officials and a handful of the world’s most consequential tech companies, is likely to shape the global AI race. Companies have long decided largely on their own whether to give the public access to the latest advances or to withhold them over concerns about safety and security. Now, the United States will have a greater opportunity to weigh in, potentially giving the government the ability to slow down the rollout of the technology.
Among those in attendance at the meeting were representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Google and Nvidia, according to two of the people. The White House solicited feedback from the companies, but the rules governing the AI reviews are almost complete, said one of the people.
American companies including Nvidia, Meta and Google make open-source models. But it is the open-source models of Chinese firms such as Alibaba, DeepSeek and Moonshot AI that have caused the most concern among administration officials.
Chinese models have recently performed nearly as well as leading American models, causing concern that China could be pulling ahead in the AI race. But it is unclear whether the United States has the capacity to regulate this foreign technology through the new review process, and it is unlikely Chinese companies or Beijing would submit to American reviews.
“I don’t think this framework seriously wrestles with the question of: What do we want the guardrails on advanced AI to be, and as it evolves should they get stronger?” said Lindsay Gorman, a former tech adviser to the Biden administration.
President Donald Trump started his second term as a booster of AI, painting his support as necessary for the United States to stay ahead of China. He has urged little regulation and cultivated relationships with top AI companies and billionaires invested in the technology.
But his stance has shifted amid broader concerns that AI could spike power prices, lead to job losses and expose major institutions to sophisticated cyberattacks. In June, Trump signed an executive order giving the government oversight over new advanced models, resulting in the framework previewed to tech companies on Tuesday.
“The voluntary framework advances the Trump administration’s America First cybersecurity strategy by strengthening our national security and cementing American AI dominance,” Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. “Companies that choose to collaborate with the administration through this framework are putting American innovation, security, and cyber defense first.”
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The decision was first reported by Axios.
Details of the framework governing the reviews of the AI models, one of the most significant federal efforts to oversee a fast-evolving technology, will not be made public, the people said. Neither will a list of “trusted” institutions that will get early access to advanced AI models alongside the government, said a person familiar with the matter.
The decision to keep the details secret immediately drew criticism from close AI industry observers.
“A rulebook can only hold AI companies in check if people outside those companies know what the rules are,” said Brad Carson, president of the nonprofit group Americans for Responsible Innovation. “The administration’s decision to keep their framework secret shuts those voices out and threatens public accountability, which underpins our democratic institutions.”
OpenAI and Anthropic have also recently disclosed incidents in which their models escaped from testing environments and hacked other companies, adding urgency within the administration to review the models for security.
On Tuesday, OpenAI said in a blog post that it had discovered more instances of its models carrying out smaller cyberattacks. The incidents occurred when OpenAI’s technology was being tested by other organizations, including a company the AI lab uses to do cybersecurity testing and Britain’s AI Security Institute. That institute also tested models from Anthropic and found that they, too, attempted to hack other organizations, it said in a blog post.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The companies have denied those claims.)