OpenAI Says It Will Comply With Trump Executive Order Requiring Pre-Release AI Model Reviews

OpenAI has confirmed it will participate in a voluntary federal review process for artificial intelligence models, following an executive order signed by President Trump on Tuesday that requires AI companies to grant the government access to their systems 30 days before public release.

George Osborne, OpenAI's head of countries, told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal on the sidelines of SXSW in London that the company would sign up to the order.

"It's quite right that democratic governments have a big role to play in how this technology is used and deployed," Osborne said.

The executive order asks companies to submit their models to a benchmarking process designed to assess "the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and determine the threshold at which an AI model should be designated a 'covered frontier model.'" The 30-day pre-release window is intended to give federal evaluators time to complete that assessment before a model reaches the public.

Osborne framed OpenAI's willingness to cooperate as consistent with the company's existing approach to government outreach. "We proactively suggested ways that governments can keep a track on safety and security issues, not just in the U.S., but more broadly," he said, noting that the company takes its responsibilities "very seriously."

He added that OpenAI, as "this leading frontier lab with these very, very powerful and capable AI models," does not wait to be asked before engaging with regulators.

Osborne, who served as the United Kingdom's finance minister from 2010 to 2016, also offered guidance on how governments should approach the broader regulatory question. "Governments are going to have to be smart" over how they regulate the space, he said, recommending that policymakers "create powerful regulatory bodies, but with a lot of flexibility into how they will operate in the future."

Because the order is described as voluntary, compliance is not legally mandated, making OpenAI's public endorsement a signal of the company's posture toward the current administration's approach to AI governance.

The move comes as Washington continues to debate how to oversee rapidly advancing AI systems without stifling development. The Trump administration's benchmarking framework represents one of the more concrete federal attempts to establish an evaluation standard for frontier models — systems at the leading edge of capability — before they are made available to the public.

OpenAI's participation could influence whether other major AI developers follow suit, given the company's prominent standing in the industry. No other major AI labs had publicly confirmed compliance with the order as of Friday morning.

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