Chris Fall has resigned as director of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation after three months in the role, the US Commerce Department confirmed. The department did not provide a reason for his departure.
Arvind Raman, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will serve as acting director while the government searches for a permanent replacement. CAISI operates within NIST under the Commerce Department.
Agency Faces Another Leadership Change
Fall joined CAISI in April after Collin Burns left the position within days of his appointment. The Washington Post reported that Burns was asked to resign because of his previous work at Anthropic, which had been involved in disputes with the Trump administration.
Before joining CAISI, Fall led the Department of Energy’s Office of Science during President Donald Trump’s first administration. He also served as acting director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and previously worked at the Office of Naval Research.
David Sacks, the White House adviser on AI and cryptocurrency, had overseen the organisation before stepping down from that role in March.
CAISI Tests Advanced AI Systems
CAISI serves as the federal government’s main contact for testing commercial AI systems and developing technical standards. Its work includes evaluating advanced models, creating testing methods and examining cybersecurity and national security risks.
The Commerce Department restructured the former US AI Safety Institute as CAISI to place greater emphasis on innovation, national security and cooperation with AI companies.
The centre has released assessments of Chinese open-weight models, including systems developed by Z.ai and DeepSeek. However, it has disclosed limited information about how its model evaluations are designed and conducted.
Departure Comes During Policy Changes
Fall’s resignation follows several changes to the administration’s AI oversight system. President Trump signed an executive order in June establishing a voluntary process for federal agencies to assess certain frontier models for national security risks before public release.
The White House also introduced the Gold Eagle cybersecurity programme to coordinate the discovery and repair of software vulnerabilities found with AI tools. CAISI was not among the federal organisations publicly identified as part of that programme.
Fall’s departure comes as officials continue debating the treatment of advanced Chinese models and the responsibilities of American AI developers. The Commerce Department said it expects to name a new CAISI director in the coming weeks.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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