Sources: officials at the Commerce Department's AI safety center CAISSI were asked to informally report to a White House office, raising independence concerns (Garance Burke/Associated Press)

Officials at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI), a small division of the Commerce Department tasked with assessing the safety of new AI offerings, have reportedly been asked to informally report to a White House office. According to the Associated Press, two former government officials shared this information on the condition of anonymity.

The center currently lacks a permanent leader and has ceased publishing its research. The reported arrangement has raised concerns among critics regarding the potential politicization of decisions involving cybersecurity and bioweapons. There are also concerns that CAISSI’s findings could be muted or altered to defer to the technology industry.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, PBS NewsHour, Winnipeg Free Press — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.