President Trump on June 2 signed an executive order titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security,” establishing a voluntary framework for government review of frontier AI models before their public release — ending weeks of internal White House debate over how aggressively to regulate the technology. The order was signed privately, without the customary livestream or public ceremony. Its core mechanism directs the NSA, CISA, and Treasury to spend 60 days building a classified benchmarking system to determine which models qualify as “covered frontier models,” then design an opt-in framework through which developers may voluntarily submit those models for government testing up to 30 days before releasing them to anyone else. The order explicitly bars the creation of “a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement” for new AI models — a provision added to reassure industry against heavier oversight.
The final text represents a significant narrowing of earlier drafts, which Politico reported had proposed a 90-day mandatory review period and formal government evaluation authority; both were replaced by the voluntary, shorter window. Separately, the order sets a 30-day clock for CISA to issue Binding Operational Directives hardening federal civilian systems and expanding AI-enabled cybersecurity tools to state and local authorities and critical infrastructure operators including rural hospitals, community banks, and local utilities; Treasury must simultaneously stand up a voluntary AI cybersecurity clearinghouse to coordinate vulnerability scanning and patch distribution. The Attorney General is directed to prioritize criminal enforcement against anyone using AI for unauthorized computer access. The Council on Foreign Relations described the order as “a shift” for an administration that had previously resisted any AI oversight; analysts at Lawfare and The Next Web noted that voluntary participation alone may prove insufficient as adversaries already automate cyberattacks using frontier models.
White House | CNBC | Politico