The United States Department of Commerce has removed from its website details of a deal in which Microsoft, Google and xAI agreed to submit new artificial intelligence models to government scientists for security testing before their release, Reuters reported on Monday.
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The homepage, posted on May 5, said the three companies would deliver their cutting-edge AI systems to the ministry's testing team to be examined for vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, risks of military abuse and national security weaknesses before public release.
By Monday afternoon Washington time, the link displayed an error message “Sorry, we can’t find this page” and then redirected to the website of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, the government agency conducting the tests.
The Center, the successor to the U.S. AI Security Institute (AISI), is housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the Department of Commerce. The renaming and restructuring followed an executive order that scaled back the previous administration’s AI security architecture and reshaped the institute’s mission around industry standards and coordination rather than security assessment.
Reuters reported that neither the Commerce Department nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment on why the page was deleted. There has been no public statement from Microsoft, Google or xAI about the change.
The May 5 announcement was seen at the time as a notable commitment by the three companies to government review before release and as a sign of growing federal concern about the national security risks posed by powerful AI systems.
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The deal follows Anthropic's removal from a Pentagon AI contract by the Trump administration over alleged security-related restrictions. Anthropic was not listed as a participant in the Commerce Department's testing program.
The deletion does not necessarily mean that the program has been canceled. The AI Standards and Innovation Center continues to operate, and the redirection of the website suggests that the relationship between the entities and the three companies remains at an operational level.
However, several federal officials have publicly questioned the wisdom of giving the government access to cutting-edge AI models before release, as such access could make them a target for cyberespionage by states.
The story matters primarily as a signal. The Commerce Department’s willingness to remove a positive AI safety announcement from its website, without explanation, will be read by critics and supporters of U.S. AI policy as evidence of internal disagreement over how the government should engage with cutting-edge AI labs.
Industry observers had treated the initial May 5 announcement as a solid element of the administration's new AI policy.
Microsoft, Google and xAI did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and other major model providers were not part of the original announcement and have not commented on the deletion.
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The Center for AI Standards and Innovation website, where the redirect is now directed, contains general information about its program, but does not currently include the details of the pre-release testing agreement that were present on the deleted Commerce Department page.
