US government AI commissioner fired again after four days
Just four days after taking office, the new head of the important US center for artificial intelligence has already been replaced. AI researcher Collin Burns had to resign from his position at the Department of Commerce under pressure from the White House.
Worked for the wrong company
Burns only started working at the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, a central authority for technical standards and security issues relating to artificial intelligence, on Monday last week. He was asked to resign on Thursday, the reported Washington Post citing several people familiar with the process. Those involved did not initially comment officially on the background. According to reports, Burns’ previous work at the AI company Anthropic caused resistance at the highest levels in the US government. The company has been in dispute with the administration of President Donald Trump for months. Among other things, this concerns the question of how AI systems can be used for military purposes. Trump had publicly attacked Anthropic as a “radically left-wing, woke company.”
The abrupt change in personnel also highlights a fundamental problem facing the US government: highly qualified experts in artificial intelligence are rare. Technological development is currently being driven primarily by private companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. Government agencies and universities are considered less competitive in many areas, which makes it more difficult to recruit suitable experts.
Successor already found
The center at the Department of Commerce was originally founded under President Joe Biden as the AI Safety Institute. The facility received its current name under Trump. It is considered the federal government’s most important interface to the AI industry. One of their tasks is to check new models for risks to national security. This involves, for example, systems that could be misused for hacker attacks. Initially, Burns’ appointment was received positively in professional circles. Observers saw it as a sign that the government was relying on top technical staff.
However, on the same day it was announced that the ministry wanted to take “a different path”. The new director of the center will now be Chris Fall, a scientist with many years of experience in federal authorities and at universities. The Commerce Department said Fall brings the scientific leadership needed to keep the U.S. at the forefront of evaluating advanced AI models and technical standards.
