US federal agencies sued over secret AI safety testing framework

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Four federal agencies criticized for failing to share the framework's details

We don't know anything about who's involved and how models are tested

Protect Democracy wants a court order by the end of the month

Four separate US federal agencies are being sued over the Trump administration's secret framework for testing frontier AI models before they get released.

Protect Democracy argues that "almost no details" have been shared about how the framework works, who participates in it, how companies are selected or what legal authority underpins the reviews.

The nonprofit warns the secrecy is especially significant because the government could potentially influence which AI models can be released and who can access them.

US government agencies sued over AI framework

This comes after weeks of battle between Claude-maker Anthropic and the US Government following revisions to the availability of Mythos 5 and an attempt by President Trump to blacklist the company.

Protect Democracy wants the government to disclose the framework's details, its participation terms, the identities of participants, rules governing access to frontier models and the contractual arrangements. The group also wants an injunction preventing agencies from withholding records that are not classified.

The government bodies in question include the Office of the National Cyber Director, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Departments of both the Treasury and Commerce.

The White House has argued that aspects of the evaluation legitimately need to remain a secret, and national security-related tests could contain classified information.

"Just because things are unclassified, that doesn’t mean we are going to broadcast them to everyone," a White House spokesperson said.

Protecting Democracy isn't the only entity concerned about the framework. US Representative Greg Casar (D-Tx.) accused Trump of "completely failing to keep us safe from the dangers of AI" and being "too busy cashing in to protect our jobs or national security."

With Congress also in the dark, Protect Democracy argues the details are needed for both congressional oversight and public accountability.

The group is now seeking a court order for disclosure of the non-classified framework and related details by September 30.