Under the direction of President Trump, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced his plans to reform the agency formerly known as the U.S. AI Safety Institute into the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).

AI holds great potential for transformational advances that will enhance U.S. economic and national security. This change will ensure Commerce uses its vast scientific and industrial expertise to evaluate and understand the capabilities of these rapidly developing systems and identify vulnerabilities and threats within systems developed in the U.S. and abroad.

“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.

CAISI will serve as industry’s primary point of contact within the U.S. Government to facilitate testing and collaborative research related to harnessing and securing the potential of commercial AI systems. To that end, CAISI will:

• Work with NIST organizations to develop guidelines and best practices to measure and improve the security of AI systems, and work with the NIST Information Technology Laboratory and other NIST organizations to assist industry to develop voluntary standards.
• Establish voluntary agreements with private sector AI developers and evaluators, and lead unclassified evaluations of AI capabilities that may pose risks to national security. In conducting these evaluations, CAISI will focus on demonstrable risks, such as cybersecurity, biosecurity, and chemical weapons.
• Lead evaluations and assessments of capabilities of U.S. and adversary AI systems, the adoption of foreign AI systems, and the state of international AI competition.
• Lead evaluations and assessments of potential security vulnerabilities and malign foreign influence arising from use of adversaries’ AI systems, including the possibility of backdoors and other covert, malicious behavior.
• Coordinate with other federal agencies and entities, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Intelligence Community, to develop evaluation methods, as well as conduct evaluations and assessments.
• Represent U.S. interests internationally to guard against burdensome and unnecessary regulation of American technologies by foreign governments and collaborate with the NIST Information Technology Laboratory to ensure US dominance of international AI standards.

CAISI will continue to operate within NIST and regularly collaborate and coordinate with other organizations within NIST, including the Information Technology Laboratory, as well as other bureaus within the Department of Commerce, including BIS.