Trump Administration Replaces AI Safety Institute with CAISI

The Trump administration is reorganizing the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI) into the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI). Established by the Biden administration in 2023, the AISI operated within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to research risks in commercial AI systems.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced the shift, stating that the reorganization aims to prioritize innovation over regulation. Lutnick claimed that "censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security" for too long. While CAISI will remain housed within NIST and continue to lead unclassified evaluations of AI risks to national security, its primary focus will shift toward helping the industry develop voluntary standards to maintain U.S. dominance in international AI benchmarks.

The transition leaves the status of existing research agreements between the federal government and AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, uncertain.