The White House Is Going to Expand Its AI Policy

White House officials are almost certain to revise the Trump administration’s new artificial intelligence guidelines and expand its oversight of AI models, according to people familiar with the matter.

The White House announced this month that it had developed an AI framework, where the most powerful models created by US labs would be tested for safety by the federal government before they could be released publicly. The administration has not made the framework public, and reportedly has no plans to do so.

The AI framework currently deals only with so-called closed models developed by the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI. But the framework is expected in the coming months to cover open models, too, a White House official tells Inner Loop.

In short, as soon as open models reach the same “frontier” capabilities as Anthropic’s Mythos-class models and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, they will be added to the framework and subject to prerelease testing, the White House official says.

The move reflects the White House’s evolving approach to oversight and regulation of the AI sector that has only been increasing in power over the last few months and sparked concerns that models could autonomously hack the Pentagon or global financial markets.

This concern isn’t unfounded: Over several weeks in May and June, OpenAI recently disclosed, a group of models colluded on a secret message board on how to access the internet. After staff shut it down, the models again rebuilt the messaging board and broke out undetected in late July.

While the White House once hoped it could develop guidelines in one swoop of an executive action, the exponential development of AI models has forced officials across the Trump administration to evolve guidelines in real time, the people say.

Aside from the national security concerns, Trump officials are also grappling with the framework leading to a two-tier situation, where if only closed models start getting seals of approval, enterprises might become hesitant to use open models that don't have the same approval, even if they are cheaper.

Some Trump officials have expressed concern that it could paradoxically disincentivize US companies from developing open models. But they privately tell Inner Loop they also recognize that imposing a potential 30-day testing requirement could equally stifle development.

The AI framework remains voluntary for now, according to a White House official, in large part because President Donald Trump has been adamant that formal regulation of the industry would only help China catch up to the US in the AI race.

But the White House has been coming under pressure from other parts of the administration, Inner Loop has learned, to draw up a more robust arrangement with leading AI labs because the current framework is still vague. This, sources suggest, could even result in leading AI labs working as formal partners in testing programs.

A busy night of Democratic and GOP primaries on Tuesday revealed what might be coming down the line for the midterm elections in November.

In the closely watched Wisconsin primary for governor, the democratic socialist candidate Francesca Hong lost to the more moderate candidate David Crowley.

Hong ended up with a little over 300,000 votes, which would have won nearly every previous Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor this century, as Semafor’s David Weigel noted on X. The prevailing view among political operatives is that the midterms will be won and lost on turnout, and Democratic turnout is already looking exceptionally high this year.

Meanwhile, a Trump endorsement has not meant guaranteed success for an increasing number of Republican candidates. In Minnesota, former MyPillow CEO and 2020 election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell lost to Republican state House speaker Lisa Demuth in Minnesota’s gubernatorial primary, despite Trump’s endorsement.

In the Republican primary race to succeed Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat in South Carolina, Graham’s sister Darline failed to clinch a majority despite having the Trump endorsement and will go to a runoff against the hard-line conservative US representative Ralph Norman.

Without Trump at the top of the ticket, Republican turnout might be depressed, and even if Trump manages to turn out his MAGA base, the Hong result shows that Democrats are clearly animated this midterm cycle. If they remain just as energized in November, it could bode well for Democrats to take majorities in Congress.

This is an edition of Hugo Lowell’s Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Wired. Open at source →