Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI)

The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) is housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It traces its origins to the U.S. AI Safety Institute (USAISI/AISI), which was announced by Vice President Kamala Harris at the UK AI Safety Summit in November 2023 and formally established following Executive Order 14110. Elizabeth Kelly served as its founding Director and Elham Tabassi as its Chief Technology Officer. In June 2025, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick rebranded the organization as the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), reflecting a shift in emphasis from broad safety concerns toward innovation, competitiveness, and demonstrable security risks. Core responsibilities were largely preserved: developing voluntary guidelines and best practices for measuring and improving AI system security, establishing voluntary agreements with private sector AI developers and evaluators, conducting unclassified evaluations of AI capabilities that may pose risks to national security (focusing on cybersecurity, biosecurity, and chemical weapons threats), assessing U.S. and foreign AI systems, and coordinating with agencies including DoD, DoE, DHS, OSTP, and the Intelligence Community. CAISI also represents U.S. interests in international AI standards bodies to prevent burdensome foreign regulation and ensure U.S. dominance in global AI standards. In February 2026, CAISI launched the AI Agent Standards Initiative to ensure that autonomous AI agents are adopted securely and can interoperate across digital ecosystems, built around three pillars: industry-led standards development, open-source protocol development, and security and identity research. CAISI maintains a consortium (formerly the AISIC) of over 280 organizations from industry, academia, government, and civil society. The organization is headquartered at NIST's main campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland.