Trump admin takes 'safety' out of U.S. AI Safety Institute

President Donald Trump's directive to rebrand the U.S AI Safety Institute will eliminate "safety" from its name. Instead, the AISI, which worked with private tech companies to asses the safety risks of AI, will be renamed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).

According to Axios, which broke the news on May 29, the new CAISI will retain much of the same function, with an added focus on international coordination.

Launched in 2023 by President Joe Biden, AISI was housed under the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Its original mandate was to assess the risks posed by systems like ChatGPT and Claude. Then, after Trump came back into office, and Elon Musk's “DOGE” team added to the mix, insiders expected the institute to be dissolved entirely.

In February, AISI was excluded from the Paris AI Summit hosted by Trump’s team. By March, researchers were told to prioritize audits that reduced "ideological bias" in the systems they reviewed.

What exactly CAISI will do now remains unclear. Per Axios, the former AISI's responsibilities won't deviate that much, but judging from its new name and comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the focus appears to be tilting toward acceleration, not caution.

"For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security," Lutnick said in a statement. "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."