Trump plan to test AI models has a problem—US security teams were gutted by DOGE

Key points

• On Tuesday, Donald Trump finally signed his executive order expanding the government’s efforts to conduct voluntary safety testing of frontier AI models.
• Now, critics are warning that the order may be short-sighted, offering only performative reassurances that the government is actively monitoring for AI risks, while changing very little about how and when models are deployed.
• Last month, Trump abruptly canceled a signing event, where he had hoped to launch an earlier version of the EO with CEOs of leading AI firms in attendance.
• Invited at the last minute, several CEOs simply couldn’t make the signing but still signaled support for the order.
• Officially, Trump claimed he postponed the event because he worried that the EO might have gone too far and had become a “blocker” impeding AI innovation.