How Trump's AI strategy is taking shape

The big picture: The administration is relying on voluntary cooperation from AI developers rather than mandatory safety requirements.

• That's happening even as the top labs warn of potentially worrying advancements in their latest models.

What they're saying: "There's a risk of a gap developing between what the Trump administration AI policy says and believes about policy implementation," Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Axios.

• "That's both due to a talent exodus and the willingness of the Trump administration to change its approach rapidly if the views of the president shift again, which reduces predictability."

Zoom in: Here's a look at the AI order's first major deadlines:

July 2: By this date, the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to have a plan to prioritize cyber defense of federal government information systems and make sure the latest AI models are available to critical infrastructure, including hospitals, banks and utilities.

• The Treasury Department is also expected to establish an "AI cybersecurity clearinghouse" with industry partners focused on finding and patching cyber vulnerabilities.
• The Office of Management and Budget is due to identify grant funding for "advanced AI vulnerability detection."

August 1: By this date, the Office of Personnel Management is tasked with expanding hiring for cybersecurity specialists through the U.S. Tech Force.

• Treasury, the National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will be required to develop a "classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models," including determining who would be covered under that process.
• That same group of agencies is also tasked with designing a voluntary framework with AI developers, with those developers giving the government access to models up to 30 days before public release.

The order doesn't mention or give a role to the Center for AI Standards and Innovation within the Commerce Department, which has been testing AI models for safety since the Biden administration.

• CAISI recently announced new agreements to test models, but was told to take down that announcement shortly after it went up as the White House worked out its AI order, a person familiar with the matter told Axios.
• "CAISI's absence is hard to ignore," Ilona Cohen, chief legal officer at HackerOne and a former Obama administration lawyer, told Axios.

• "When an administration leaves its flagship AI safety institution out of a major AI order, people are going to ask whether the center's role is being reduced or simply redefined," said Cohen.

"The implementation of President Trump's AI agenda is a whole-of-government effort, with numerous agencies contributing to its success," White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement.

• "The entire Administration is working closely together to deliver meaningful results for the American people including strengthening America's cyber and national security, protecting critical infrastructure, and ensuring the United States remains the global leader in AI innovation."
• A Commerce Department spokesperson declined to answer questions about CAISI's lack of a role in the AI order.

What we're watching: Both OpenAI and Anthropic have been talking about how the latest AI models can be dangerous and the industry may benefit from slowing or pausing development.

• "The frontier labs are raising alarms for good reasons, but they also have economic incentives to trumpet their capabilities — that's all the more reason for the government to have the capacity to evaluate these models," Horowitz said.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say the Office of Personnel Management is tasked with expanding hiring for cybersecurity specialists through the U.S. Tech Force (not the Office of Management and Budget).