White House order creates classified benchmark for advanced AI models

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed anexecutive orderestablishing a classified process to evaluate the cybersecurity capabilities of advanced AI models, directing federal agencies to determine when a system qualifies as a “covered frontier model.”The order gives federal agencies 60 days to develop a classified benchmark for measuring an AI model’s advanced cyber capabilities and to set the threshold at which a system is designated a covered frontier model. It also establishes a voluntary framework under which companies are asked to give the government access to those models up to 30 days before release, down from the 90 days in an earlier draft.In aLinkedIn post, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said the company applauds the administration’s focus onAI securityand on theopen-source softwareecosystem that supports much of today’s digital infrastructure.“As AI becomes more foundational to all of us, including business and government, securing it — and the open source software our society depends on — is essential to maintaining trust and ensuring U.S. leadership,” Krishna wrote.

The order arrives as governments and technology companiessharpen their focuson the security implications of frontier AI models, which can perform increasingly complex tasks and may play a larger role in protecting critical digital infrastructure.Open-source softwarepowersmany of the frameworks and tools used to build modern AI systems. Vulnerabilities in widely used open-source componentscan affectorganizations across industries, making software security an increasingly important issue as AI adoption grows.The executive order also directs agencies to expand AI-enabled cybersecurity programs and strengthen federal cyber defenses. It directs the Treasury secretary, working with the National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to form an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse within 30 days to coordinate the discovery, validation and remediation of software vulnerabilities.

In a separateLinkedIn post, OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane called the order “an important step forward” and said AI security requires close partnership between government and industry.“Maximizing AI’s gains while minimizing its risk requires the public and private sectors to pool their respective strengths,” Lehane wrote. “The US government brings unique visibility into security threats and critical infrastructure risks, as well as access to classified systems the private sector does not possess. Frontier AI companies bring technical understanding of these systems and how to test and safeguard them.”Lehane noted thatcyber threatsoften target institutions people rely on every day, including hospitals, schools, utilities, financial institutions and local governments.“That same principle is at the heart of this EO: a stronger partnership between government and industry, better tools for trusted defenders, and a safer foundation for the Intelligence Age,” Lehane wrote.