Staff at US AI safety center asked to report to the White House, raising independence concerns

Officials at CAISSI, the Commerce Department division that tests frontier AI models for safety, were recently asked to informally report to a White House office, two former government officials told the AP. The center has no permanent leader after a director was hired and fired within days in April and a successor later resigned, and it has stopped publishing its safety research, prompting congressional questions since August. The White House did not answer specific questions about the center.