My read is that this is motivated purely by cybersecurity concerns. I don't have the impression that the whitehouse is suddenly x-risk pilled. Still, it's good to see the US taking steps towards regulation of powerful AI. Also a sign that regulation remains a topic with bipartisan interest.
I'm not really clear what it means to be designated a "covered frontier model" however? If it's a standard term, I haven't encountered it before.
What seem like the most interesting bits, selectively pruned of legalese:
>Within 60 days of the date of this order, the [executive branch] shall:
>(a) develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and determine the threshold at which an AI model should be designated a “covered frontier model” for the purposes of this order, sharing such assessments with AI developers and researchers as appropriate. …
>(b) design a voluntary framework with AI developers through which developers would be able to: (i) engage the Federal Government to determine whether model(s) under development meet the designation of “covered frontier model”; (ii) provide the Federal Government with access to covered frontier models, subject to [some conditions]; and
(iii) collaborate with the Federal Government to select trusted partners that will have early access to covered frontier models to promote secure innovation and strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.
Because it's an EO, which is not a law. EOs can only direct how the executive branch functions. Sometimes it could include calls for regulation if there are pre-existing regulatory powers.
EOs have force of law if exercising valid executive authority. POTUS could have, e.g., conditioned federal contracts on compliance with this vetting program, but didn’t.
> So… it’s entirely “voluntary”? This has no teeth.
I think you're viewing this from the wrong lens. The current mission of the administration is to align everyone with the party now, so doing "voluntary" things like this is a great way to filter who is actually willing to do this vs not. So you'll see many companies "voluntarily" follow those things, so they can signal that they're ready to play ball, compared to the other companies who obviously see this as a waste of time, and the administration can then treat them accordingly.
With the administration's track record of reactive (if not capricious) actions, I doubt any leading AI Labs are going to flout this order, even if it is "voluntary". Nobody wants to be designated as a supply chain risk.
Well, OpenAI and Anthropic will volunteer to get the "too dangerous to release" government stamp before the IPOs.
Or xAI will claim a new dangerous model that will be audited and rubber stamped by "big balls" for the government.
Though the current Trump favorites are hard to discern: The Kushner family has investments in OpenAI and the Trump/Musk relationships are always changing.
With the number of Chinese researchers in the field they cannot keep anything secret anyway. They don't want to either, everyone knows that real military AI does not require the amount of compute that LLMs do and current models are already good enough for automated propaganda.
My read is that this is motivated purely by cybersecurity concerns. I don't have the impression that the whitehouse is suddenly x-risk pilled. Still, it's good to see the US taking steps towards regulation of powerful AI. Also a sign that regulation remains a topic with bipartisan interest.
I'm not really clear what it means to be designated a "covered frontier model" however? If it's a standard term, I haven't encountered it before.
What seem like the most interesting bits, selectively pruned of legalese:
>Within 60 days of the date of this order, the [executive branch] shall:
>(a) develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and determine the threshold at which an AI model should be designated a “covered frontier model” for the purposes of this order, sharing such assessments with AI developers and researchers as appropriate. …
>(b) design a voluntary framework with AI developers through which developers would be able to: (i) engage the Federal Government to determine whether model(s) under development meet the designation of “covered frontier model”; (ii) provide the Federal Government with access to covered frontier models, subject to [some conditions]; and (iii) collaborate with the Federal Government to select trusted partners that will have early access to covered frontier models to promote secure innovation and strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.
So… it’s entirely “voluntary”? This has no teeth.
Because it's an EO, which is not a law. EOs can only direct how the executive branch functions. Sometimes it could include calls for regulation if there are pre-existing regulatory powers.
EOs have force of law if exercising valid executive authority. POTUS could have, e.g., conditioned federal contracts on compliance with this vetting program, but didn’t.
> So… it’s entirely “voluntary”? This has no teeth.
I think you're viewing this from the wrong lens. The current mission of the administration is to align everyone with the party now, so doing "voluntary" things like this is a great way to filter who is actually willing to do this vs not. So you'll see many companies "voluntarily" follow those things, so they can signal that they're ready to play ball, compared to the other companies who obviously see this as a waste of time, and the administration can then treat them accordingly.
With the administration's track record of reactive (if not capricious) actions, I doubt any leading AI Labs are going to flout this order, even if it is "voluntary". Nobody wants to be designated as a supply chain risk.
Well, OpenAI and Anthropic will volunteer to get the "too dangerous to release" government stamp before the IPOs.
Or xAI will claim a new dangerous model that will be audited and rubber stamped by "big balls" for the government.
Though the current Trump favorites are hard to discern: The Kushner family has investments in OpenAI and the Trump/Musk relationships are always changing.
With the number of Chinese researchers in the field they cannot keep anything secret anyway. They don't want to either, everyone knows that real military AI does not require the amount of compute that LLMs do and current models are already good enough for automated propaganda.