By Courtney Rozen
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation Director Chris Fall has resigned just three months after being appointed to lead the federal AI testing institute at the Department of Commerce, a department spokesperson told Reuters, marking the latest shakeup in the Trump administration’s plans on AI.
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Arvind Raman, who leads the Commerce Department office that oversees the AI testing institute, will step into Fall’s role temporarily, the spokesperson said. Raman is the former dean of engineering at Purdue University.
The Commerce Department did not provide a reason for Fall’s departure. A spokesperson for U.S. President Donald Trump declined to comment. Reuters could not immediately reach Fall for comment.
Fall’s exit marks the latest change in direction for Trump’s approach to AI. The president upon returning to office in 2025 said the federal government should take a hands-off approach to the tech sector. He has since taken a more active role in monitoring the technology, though his public statements and policies appear to change week by week.
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The institute is responsible for working with leading AI labs such as Anthropic, Google’s DeepMind and OpenAI to test their unreleased models for vulnerabilities. The group is staffed by scientists and engineers, who are focused on calculating the “demonstrable risks” posed by advanced AI models, according to the institute’s website. They want to limit opportunities for U.S. adversaries to use AI to develop chemical or biological weapons, or corrupt the data used to train American AI models.
The institute also works with Microsoft and Elon Musk’s xAI to test their models.
(Reporting by Courtney Rozen and Ismail Shakil; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Andrea Riccu)
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