NIST will test three major tech firms’ frontier AI models for cybersecurity risks
NIST will test three major tech firms’ frontier AI models for cybersecurity risks
https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/nist-ai-model-testing-caisi-google-microsoft/819452/
Publish Date: 2026-05-06 10:58:00
Source Domain: www.cybersecuritydive.com
The U.S. government’s AI security center will evaluate frontier models from Google, Microsoft and xAI before their release to determine whether the models’ advanced capabilities pose cybersecurity risks.
The newly announced plan for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) to conduct “pre-deployment evaluations” represents the U.S. government’s most significant attempt yet to get ahead of security threats from powerful AI systems.
“Independent, rigorous measurement science is essential to understanding frontier AI and its national security implications,” CAISI Director Chris Fall said in a statement. “These expanded industry collaborations help us scale our work in the public interest at a critical moment.”
NIST said the partnerships would help the agency and the tech companies exchange information, spur “voluntary product improvements” and ensure the government had a “clear understanding” of what AI models were capable of doing. An interagency task force at CAISI will allow officials from across the government to test the models, including in classified settings.
Natasha Crampton, Microsoft’s chief responsible AI officer, said in a LinkedIn post that tech companies couldn’t conduct “evaluations tied to national security and public safety” on their own.
“They require close collaboration between industry and governments with deep technical and security expertise,” she wrote, adding that Microsoft will apply what it learns “directly into how we design, test, and deploy AI — and share best practices to help strengthen AI testing more broadly.”
The arrangement represents a significant reversal for the Trump administration, which previously eliminated AI security review measures that it called overly burdensome.
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