Top Trump administration AI safety official Chris Fall has left after just three months on the job, according to a Commerce Department spokesperson.
Fall, who was director of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, has been at the center of the federal government's voluntary review process of frontier AI models. CAISI is a Commerce Department agency that functions as a key point of contact for industry and spearheads commercial AI testing and research.
His departure comes as the White House and lawmakers across the country grapple with how to regulate the emerging technology.
"Following Chris's departure, NIST Director Dr. Arvind Raman will continue to oversee CAISI and will serve as Acting CAISI Director," the spokesperson told POLITICO, which, like Business Insider, is a part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
Raman is also leading the search for a new permanent CAISI director to be announced in the coming weeks, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wants somebody with deep knowledge and expertise on AI, a Commerce official granted anonymity to discuss personnel issues said.
After Commerce slapped export controls on Anthropic in June, Fall was closely involved in discussions with top Anthropic executives about how to restore access to the company's advanced Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, POLITICO previously reported.
He was [appointed to lead CAISI](https://www.meritalk.com/articles/trump-administration-taps-chris-fall-to-lead-caisi/) in April and was a Department of Energy official during Trump's first term.
Axios [previously reported](https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/trump-ai-security-agency-head-resigns) details of Fall's departure.
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