Officials at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, an independent Commerce Department division known as CAISSI, were recently asked to informally report to a White House office, according to two former government officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, PBS NewsHour reported.
The arrangement concerns critics who worry the executive branch might politicize decisions affecting everything from cybersecurity to bioweapons, and that the center's findings could be altered or muted in deference to the tech industry, which has been largely entrusted to police itself. Others argue that closer ties to President Donald Trump's orbit could give the division more prominence and perhaps more funding.
The center, until recently called the U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation, lacks a permanent leader and has stopped publishing its research. It is allocated $10 million per year, about one-eighth the annual budget of its British counterpart. Its director was hired and fired within days in April; his replacement lasted a few months. In August, Congress began asking why the center stopped making reports public.
The White House did not respond to specific questions about CAISSI, but said Trump had formally established his new Super Intelligence Force and commissioned a report on risks from his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Caroline Siegel Singh of the Federation of American Scientists said the hope is to put in "nonpartisan or bipartisan technocratic experts" to enact policy in a way that best serves the American public.