President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) requesting that artificial intelligence (AI) companies provide models to the federal government to test their capabilities before they are publicly released.
AI Benchmarking Process
The PROMOTING ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INNOVATION AND SECURITY directive asks AI companies (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) to voluntarily partake in a benchmarking process to assess an AI model’s “advanced cyber capabilities” in order to designate it as a “covered frontier model.”
The EO directs the Treasury Department, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and White House officials to develop the benchmarking procedure.
Additionally, the directive explicitly prohibits the federal government from establishing a “mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement” for new AI models, ensuring that the process is voluntary for tech companies.
AI Clearinghouse
The EO also establishes a coalition of Trump administration officials directed to create an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse “in voluntary collaboration with the AI industry and operators of critical infrastructure, that coordinates and deconflicts scanning for software vulnerabilities, discovers and validates such vulnerabilities, and coordinates and prioritizes remediation and distribution of vulnerability patches.”
Prosecution of Illegal AI Use
The proclamation also directs the Attorney General to prioritize prosecuting anyone who illegally uses AI to access or damage a computer without authorization or to engage in such actions to further any other crime.
“This includes breaching any public or private information technology system, or employing AI agents to unlawfully access data or information that is subsequently used for a criminal or unlawful purpose,” the EO states.
Trump Administration's Mission
“Advanced AI capabilities make our Nation stronger, but also introduce new national security considerations that require coordinated action across executive departments and agencies (agencies), and components,” President Trump wrote in the proclamation.
“As these capabilities evolve, my Administration will continue to work closely with industry to ensure that the best and most secure technology is deployed rapidly to confront any and all threats to our country,” President Trump affirmed.
