The White House has finalised a voluntary framework for testing whether America’s most advanced AI models can be used to hack. A White House official said the framework, ordered in June, was completed by its deadline, with talks on next steps now under way.
The tests are cybersecurity assessments, designed to gauge the offensive capabilities of frontier models before they reach the wider world. Crucially, they are voluntary, so the government is inviting the labs to take part rather than compelling them.
The framework flows from an executive order signed on 2 June, which set the deadline and the light-touch shape of the programme. It is a narrower instrument than earlier drafts, favouring cooperation over mandates.
The administration has been working with the big labs on the detail. The White House engaged OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, among others, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently visited in person to go over the test specifics and discuss coming models.
Under the framework, the government can gain access to models for up to 30 days before release, wrapped in confidentiality, cybersecurity, and insider-risk protections, and can designate ‘trusted partners’ for early looks. The document itself is not public, and the benchmarks and thresholds are classified.
