US government agency to safety test frontier AI models before release

The US government's Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI, a division of the Department of Commerce) has signed agreements with Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and xAI to test advanced AI models before they are released publicly. This represents a shift toward proactive security testing, where the government evaluates frontier AI (cutting-edge AI systems with new capabilities) for safety risks and provides feedback on improvements before deployment, joining similar agreements already in place with Anthropic and OpenAI.