Synopsis
President Donald Trump has rolled out a new initiative for AI firms, allowing entities such as OpenAI and Google to present their most sophisticated AI technologies to the government for a period of 30 days ahead of public disclosure. This proactive approach is designed to tackle worries related to AI systems revealing critical vulnerabilities.Listen to this article in summarized format
The central provision allows companies such as OpenAI, Google or Anthropic to give the government access to their most powerful models for up to 30 days before planned release.
The order was triggered by concerns over Anthropic's Mythos model, which the AI startup has refused to release publicly due to its ability to expose vulnerabilities in computer systems -- including those of banks, governments and hospitals.
The 30-day window represents a compromise: the original draft that leaked to US media called for up to 90 days of pre-release government access, while tech companies had pushed to cut that figure to just 14 days.
The signing comes after a turbulent few weeks in which the White House appeared close to unveiling the measure, only to pull back abruptly.
According to Politico and other media, David Sacks, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who served as Trump's AI and crypto czar, called the president to warn that the measure would slow innovation and hurt the United States in its AI race with China -- blindsiding White House staff who believed Sacks supported the order.
Sacks wrote on X last week that "unnecessary regulation is the biggest threat to innovation in America," adding that winning the AI race required clearing "bureaucratic hurdles" from state legislatures and Washington politicians.
The order also instructs Treasury, the National Security Agency and the CISA agency to form an "AI cybersecurity clearinghouse" in voluntary collaboration with industry and critical infrastructure operators to coordinate scanning for software vulnerabilities and prioritize patches.
Trump scrapped a Biden-era AI oversight order on his first day back in the White House.
Biden's 2023 order required AI companies to share safety test results with the government and leaned heavily on voluntary commitments -- already a light-touch approach that fell short of what many experts had called for.
By contrast, the European Union's AI Act -- which entered into force in 2024 -- sets binding rules for high-risk AI systems, including mandatory transparency requirements and, for the most powerful models, obligations around safety testing and incident reporting.
