When the Biden administration created a safety institute at the standards agency and then used it to run “x-risk evals, I think we kind of lost our way there,” he said. (“X-risk” is a shortened term for “existential risk” that’s associated with the idea that AI poses major threats to humanity.)

“To me, I think we need to go back to basics at NIST, and back to basics around what NIST exists for, and that is to promulgate best-in-class standards and do critical metrology or measurement science around AI models,” Kratsios said.

Kratsios’s comments about the body once known as the AI Safety Institute came a day after the White House released its anticipated AI Action Plan — which made dozens of recommendations to do things like deregulate and rid AI of “ideological bias” — as well as three executive orders that set parts of that plan into motion. The Thursday panel, moderated by CTA’s CEO and vice chair Gary Shapiro, was focused on those actions.

The discussion also followed the Trump administration’s move last month to rename the NIST-located safety institute to the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, cutting “safety” from the name. That component was initially announced by the Biden administration in November 2023 at the UK AI Safety Summit and, over the next year, focused on working with industry, establishing testing agreements with companies, and conducting evaluations.

I get that he's most likely just "following orders" from Thiel, and probably not coming up with any of this policy, but I still hate this guy so much. I have to give Thiel credit. Once again proving he sure knows how to craft a good public scapegoat for when things inevitably go horribly wrong.

Kratsios: NIST needs ‘to go back to basics’ on standards for AI, not safety evaluation

The remarks from the Office of Science and Technology Policy director came during a conversation with the Consumer Technology Association one day after the release of the White House’s AI Action Plan.

FedScoop (fedscoop.com)

To me, it’s too late for NIST there. China is driving the agenda in AI now, because the US took too long to get organized.

The U.S. wants to be China, even if it means repeating the same mistakes and destroying any semblance of civil liberty. We're on a fast track, and they don't care who they hurt or what rights they violate as long as they can feel like they won.

No, the Current U.S. Government along with the Uber rich backing don't want to be China, they want to Collapse America and bring about a "libertarian Utopia" where you have an uncountable collection of private kingdoms owned by whoever has the money to run the "private security" of these areas.

They looked at the company towns of the 1800s and saw a moral good, and like basically everything thy do, they have openly claimed as such, but everyone ignores it, just like project 2025 in the USA, The Leaked AFD papers in Germany, the UK Leavers, etc...