White House Mulls AI Vetting After Anthropic Mythos
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- White House historically championed a pro‑innovation, light‑touch AI regulatory stance, prioritizing U.S. competitiveness and seeking to preempt restrictive state AI laws.
- Anthropic released its Mythos model, which can detect decades‑old security vulnerabilities, prompting the administration to reconsider its hands‑off approach.
- The New York Times reported the White House is weighing an executive order to vet AI models before release, a move echoed by Politico which described a proposed “vetting regime” requiring government approval.
- Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council Director, said the administration is studying a possible executive order to create an FDA‑like approval process for AI models.
- Neil Chilson and Adam Thierer warned that an FDA‑style regime would be a dramatic policy reversal for the Trump administration and could give the government a “kill switch” over AI speech.
- White House officials claim policy announcements will come directly from President Trump and that current discussion of an executive order is speculation, despite industry panic.
Why it matters: AI companies may have to obtain government approval before releasing models, a move critics say would give officials a ‘kill switch’ and overturn the Trump administration’s traditionally light‑touch, pro‑innovation stance, potentially slowing the rollout of advanced AI and reshaping the balance between innovation and security.
