The Next Wave of Enterprise AI

**Nathaniel Whittemore** (0:01)
Today on the AI Daily Brief, the next wave of Enterprise AI is upon us.
Before that, in the headlines, the very confusing and weird process around the latest AI executive order.
The AI Daily Brief is a daily podcast and video about the most important news and discussions in AI.
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Today we begin with the latest in the saga of this Trump AI executive order. This is just one of the absolute strangest policy processes I've seen. So what's going on? How did we get here and what was actually signed? First of all, by way of context, the reason that this is coming up at all is a couple parts. Firstly, there are some very, very different and contentious groups when it comes to AI, including in Trump's own coalition. Republicans like Governor DeSantis in Florida, as well as very loudly former presidential adviser Steve Bannon, have been squawking quite loudly about AI and more broadly, decrying Trump's close alliance with the technology industry for some time now. And yet the specific catalyst for this new round of policy discussion was the cyber capability of Anthropics' Mythos model. So the executive order we started hearing about a few weeks ago seemingly had something to do with labs needing to give the government access to their most advanced models before actually releasing them. Indeed, that was the core policy of the draft that was circulated two weeks ago that seemed at the time like a done deal. A signing ceremony had been scheduled, a who's who of tech CEOs had been invited to attend. However, hours before the event, President Trump pulled the order, stating I didn't like certain aspects of it and adding that he thought that it would get in the way of the US lead over China in the AI race. It later surfaced that former AI Czar David Sacks had intervened at the 11th hour, placing a call to the president to talk him out of signing the policy, at least for now. The order that was signed this week is substantially the same as the draft order that was scrapped a couple of weeks ago. Both versions of the order made safety testing voluntary, although in the current climate that's not all that meaningful a distinction. All major AI labs have agreed to submit advanced models for testing, and while some White House personnel were reportedly pushing for compulsory testing, it appears that that position never made it into a draft. Indeed, it seems like the only significant change is that companies are encouraged to make their models available 30 days prior to public release as opposed to the draft order which had asked for a 90-day period. It was that 90-day period more than anything else that triggered industry backlash for its potential to significantly slow down the release cycle. Neither version of the order provided any mechanism for the government to block a model's release. In fact, one subtle change in the new version is an inclusion of a disclaimer which reads, Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory government licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development of new AI models. This sounds like a direct response to the critique that many had had that what the White House was doing with this executive order was a de facto licensing regime.
Functionally, however, the policy just allows the government to assess new capabilities before they're available to the public. The NSA has been assigned primary responsibility for model testing with support from various cyber technology and defense agencies. In addition to safety testing, the order establishes a cybersecurity clearinghouse run by the Treasury in consultation with the NSA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. There's also provisions instructing civilian and military agencies to harden systems against AI-driven cybersecurity risk. Outside of the 90-30-day switch, the other biggest difference with this version of the order is the way that it was presented to the public.
Rather than a high-profile signing ceremony, the order was signed in private with zero fanfare. I don't think it's an unreasonable interpretation to see this as the administration treating this sort of AI safety regulation as some version of eating its vegetables rather than the Big Mac or the well-done steak that it would prefer. The order does contain some language reaffirming the administration's commitment to AI acceleration, talking about a commitment to the United States' AI global dominance, but ultimately this was the sort of Rorschach test policy that gives everyone something to comment on, everyone something to claim victory around, while ultimately doing very little. The New York Times reported the order as, in their words, signaling a shift from the hands-off approach the White House had previously taken toward AI.