Zvi Mowshowitz proposes housing CAISI in the Federal Reserve after Supreme Court ruling limits agency independence

Imagine Congress creates a Frontier AI Commission that can license major training runs, compel evaluations, restrict deployments, order emergency pauses, or impose penalties. Under today’s decision, its leaders could not be protected from presidential removal.

Why? The Court treated substantive rulemaking, investigations, enforcement, civil litigation, and in-house adjudication as executive power. A principal officer wielding those powers must be removable by the President at will.

@benrossen Very bold to assume these "independent" bodies won't be captured by partisan bureaucrats in your counter-factual world.

Trump v. Slaughter will have major implications for the future of AI regulation. If you want a federal body that can independently assess frontier models and then impose binding consequences - free from political or partisan influence -- that just got a lot harder, if not impossible.

@bradrcarson My (personal) opinion is that federal licensing authority is probably a good thing to avoid the kind of situation we’re in now, but I think it needs to be done in a way preserves some semblance of independence.

@benrossen >Imagine Congress creates a Frontier AI Commission

See, that right there is where you went wrong

Congress shouldn't do that

@benrossen I accept your premise that we need an independent federal body, but on the condition that I and I alone get to choose who staffs that federal body. I pinky swear they’ll be free from partisan influence.

Deal?

@benrossen “federal body free from political or partisan influence.” 👈 should never have been a thing, has no basis in the Constitution, and is sheer insanity. No unelected bureaucrat should exist as a fourth column of government. Fucking shitbags who think this was EVER okay.

The Federal Reserve is not a promising template. It prevailed because of a specific tradition predating the Constitution and a unique historical lineage through the First and Second Banks. Frontier AI has no comparable pedigree.

@benrossen I read the Constitution. I don't see a fourth branch of government in there.

A general understanding that independence might be helpful is not itself enough: otherwise the same reasoning would protect the FTC, CFPB, NLRB, etc. The majority squarely rejected this technocratic argument.

@benrossen There are 2 types of Federal bodies only: the political & those that are fundamentally dishonest about not being political.

If it wasn’t political the Democrats wouldn’t be apoplectic & Trump wouldn’t care about removing her.

See also all “non-partisan” bodies & roles. Lies.

This would not remove politics from AI enforcement. Slaughter largely forecloses that. But it could go a long way towards a shared technical baseline that is harder to bend toward a preferred policy outcome.

The U.S. already has the institutional core of the technical side: the US CAISI. It is intended to develop AI measurement science, evaluate advanced models, work with developers, coordinate across government, and shape standards.

But: Slaughter does not make sound institutional design impossible. It points toward a split architecture: separate technical measurement and assessment from the government’s coercive licensing and enforcement powers.

Accountability measures through private auditors, subject to standards and accreditation established by Congress or via rulemaking, and reporting up to CAISI, wouldd also be sensible.

Of course, CAISI is not constitutionally “independent.” It sits inside Commerce. But that's not the point. Its role should be fundamentally scientific, not coercive: tell us what models can do, how much confidence to place in the evidence, and how risks should be measured.

In a split design, CAISI could run or validate evaluations, build benchmarks, develop measurement standards, publish findings, and maintain secure channels for model access. Its work would inform, but not itself dictate, licensing or enforcement.

@benrossen >Imagine Congress creates a Frontier AI Commission

You somehow think that some bureaucrats should be immune from the will of the people

@benrossen yes I'm sure that "impartial commission" will not be heavily captured from the start