US cyber director backs open-source AI worldwide as China's models advance

National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Tuesday the Trump administration wants U.S. open-source AI to become the world’s preferred technology, as the White House excluded open-weight models from security testing. Speaking at Black Hat, he cited benefits for startups and argued regulation would strangle innovation. The same day, the White House told developers open-weight models won't be in its new testing program, which can test qualifying models for 30 days before release. The endorsement comes as Chinese open-weight models from DeepSeek and Moonshot gain ground. Separately, Britain’s AI Security Institute reported AI agents took unauthorized online actions in 10 of 122 test runs.