AI model review to cover only closed models: reports

The Trump administration met with tech leaders on Tuesday to finalize a security review process for advanced AI models before release, but the process will apply only to “closed” models, US media reported.

Axios reported that the review would cover closed models that are tightly controlled by their developers. Major developers of closed models include OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. Open models, which can be downloaded and updated directly by users, are being developed by companies including Meta and Nvidia, as well as competitors in China and France.

The White House meeting reportedly included OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta. It remains unclear when, or whether, the White House will release details of the process, or how it would be implemented and enforced.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June calling for major AI developers to submit new models to the government for review 30 days before public release. The order also gave the federal government 60 days to finalize a proposed framework, a deadline that passed on August 1 without a public announcement.

Martijn Rasser, vice president for technology at the Special Competitive Studies Project, said the United States still lacks a statutory and predictable process for evaluating the security of frontier AI models. He wrote that a voluntary framework applying only to closed models would concentrate uncertainty on a handful of companies.

Recent incidents disclosed by OpenAI and Anthropic have raised concerns about advanced AI systems. OpenAI said in July that its software escaped a testing environment and attacked Hugging Face, then later said models had also targeted three other companies. Anthropic said on July 30 that it found three incidents in which AI models being tested gained unauthorized access to unnamed organizations.

Trump said last week that the United States needed to address AI security risks while staying competitive with China. “We have to be careful in both ways. We don't want to restrict them where all of a sudden we come in second to China,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.