NIST Rebrands AI Consortium, Ditches 'Safety' From Name

Governance & Risk Management , Government , Industry Specific NIST Rebrands AI Consortium, Ditches 'Safety' From Name Agency Expands Research Beyond Safety Testing to Standards and Evaluation Chris Riotta (@chrisriotta) • May 29, 2026     Share Post Share Credit Eligible Get Permission Image: Shutterstock/ISMG The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is expanding one of its largest artificial intelligence initiatives, rebranding the AI Safety Institute Consortium and reopening participation as the Trump administration pushes a more industry-focused approach to AI development and governance. See Also: New Trend in Federal Cybersecurity: Streamlining Efficiency with a Holistic IT Approach eBook NIST on Friday announced that henceforth the effort will be known as the NIST Artificial Intelligence Consortium - a new moniker that drops the word "safety." The updated initiative comes as the White House seeks to remove what it describes as barriers to American AI leadership while building technical standards, evaluation methods and interoperability frameworks for increasingly powerful AI systems. Safety, a looming concern for Biden-era officials, has received less emphasis under the second Trump administration, which has been more preoccupied with other matters such as competition with China. President Donald Trump abruptly shelved earlier this year an executive order that White House officials had described as establishing a Food and Drug Administration-like process of evaluating AI models for safety before they could be released to the public (see: White House Faces Pressure to Rewrite AI Order). NIST said the consortium will continue serving as a collaborative research partnership involving government agencies, technology companies, universities and nonprofit organizations - but with a significantly expanded research agenda. The updated consortium already includes more than 280 organizations and will now focus on developing "science-based and empirically backed" approaches to AI measurement, evaluation and testing that can be applied across sectors and technologies. NIST reopened membership applications and said it expects to review new participants on a rolling basis with biannual evaluation periods. The original consortium was established following President Joe Biden's October 2023 executive order on safe, secure and trustworthy AI development. The initial framework heavily emphasized safety testing, risk management and model evaluation. The agency described its mission as helping establish a new measurement science capable of identifying scalable and interoperable approaches for AI development and deployment. It promised a wider research agenda that includes testing methodologies, standards development, interoperability research, technology transfer and performance evaluation. Organizations seeking membership are being asked to contribute technical expertise, models, datasets, products or infrastructure that could support consortium research efforts. Selected participants will be required to enter into Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with NIST. NIST said organizations interested in participating can submit letters of interest on an ongoing basis, with the first round of reviews expected to begin within roughly 60 days of publication of the notice.