White House weighs reining in contractors’ control over how agencies use AI - Government Executive

Ah, the White House is at it again — another executive order, another committee. This time, it's a spanking new working group to review AI models before deployment, because clearly what this technology needs is more bureaucracy. The pre-approval chatter we covered has now been enriched with a plan to 'limit contractor say' over how agencies actually use the stuff. Because nothing says 'government control' like a committee that reviews things before they happen, while the contractors who wrote the code and hold the data quietly get on with it.

Let's be honest: the working group will be staffed by the very people who couldn't stop the last three procurement disasters. It will produce a report, hold a few meetings, and conclude that contractor influence is fine as long as it's 'transparent.' The policy language is being floated by the Trump administration, which has historically viewed contractor oversight as something that happens to other people. The irony of a government that can't run a website without crashing it deciding it can control AI is thick enough to spread on toast.

But here's the kicker: the working group will review models 'before deployment,' but the contractors are already deploying inside agencies. The horse has bolted, so naturally the government is forming a committee to design a better stable door. Expect headlines about 'historic AI governance' and a lot of back-patting, while the actual control — the weights, the data, the fine-tuning — stays firmly in the hands of people who bill by the hour. The UK should take notes.