Three CAISSI officials may report to White House under administration plan

The Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, or CAISSI, could see three senior officials move into a White House reporting structure under a process the Trump administration began in September, The Information reported on October 12. The reported change matters because the center helps test advanced AI systems and already coordinates with agencies across the federal government. The move has not been confirmed as complete.

The Information attributed the restructuring account to a White House official. It said the three officials’ identities were not yet known because the White House was still processing their move. Reuters also reported the plan, citing The Information, and said the White House and Commerce Department could not immediately be reached for comment. Reuters did not independently establish that the transfers had taken place.

Who would oversee the three CAISSI officials

The three officials are expected to report to Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Sean Cairncross, the national cyber director, according to The Information. Kratsios and Cairncross are the proposed reporting leads; the report did not identify the three CAISSI officials whose positions would change.

A senior Commerce Department official told The Information that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had invited Kratsios and Cairncross to co-manage CAISSI about six months earlier. A White House official told the publication that coordination problems with Commerce showed a need to bring the center’s leadership closer to White House AI decisions. Those accounts explain the reported rationale, but do not establish when the new reporting arrangement would start.

What CAISSI does within NIST

According to NIST, CAISSI works with other parts of the institute on guidance and best practices for measuring and improving AI system security. It also helps industry develop voluntary standards. The center can make voluntary agreements with private developers and evaluators and lead unclassified evaluations of capabilities that could pose national-security risks, including risks involving cyber operations, biosecurity and chemical weapons.

NIST also lists assessments of US and adversary systems, foreign adoption of AI and international competition among the center’s work. Its remit includes examining security vulnerabilities and possible malicious behavior in adversary systems. The agency names the Defense, Energy and Homeland Security departments, the White House science and technology office and the intelligence community among CAISSI’s coordination partners. Working across agencies is therefore already part of the center’s stated role.

Existing AI testing agreements and leadership changes

The center’s work includes agreements that predate the reported leadership plan. On May 5, NIST announced agreements with Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI for evaluations before deployment and targeted research. NIST said the deals built on earlier partnerships that had been renegotiated. The agency presented them as a way to assess frontier AI capabilities, advance security work and make the center a primary federal contact for testing and collaborative research with commercial developers.

There was also a separate leadership change earlier in the year. Axios reported in July that Commerce had confirmed the resignation of CAISI director Chris Fall. Commerce spokesperson Kristen Eichamer told Axios that NIST Director Arvind Raman would oversee the center as acting director. Axios said Commerce expected to announce a permanent director in the following weeks, but the available reporting does not establish who holds that role now or how it relates to the proposed October arrangement.

What remains unclear about the White House plan

The available accounts leave the practical effect of the proposed move open. They do not establish its effective date, identify the three officials or show whether each will ultimately report through the structure The Information described. Nor do they establish changes to CAISSI’s formal position within Commerce, its broader staffing, its existing agreements or the evaluations it conducts. For now, the supported development is a reported plan to change where three senior officials report, with the White House citing coordination concerns.