Trump Administration Taps Chris Fall to Lead CAISI

Chris Fall, who served as an Energy Department official in the first Trump administration, has been tapped to lead the Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Standards and Innovation (CAISI).  

A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spokesperson confirmed Fall’s role to MeriTalk in an email today. In his role, Fall will helm the federal entity responsible for evaluating frontier AI models.  

“Dr. Fall brings the scientific leadership needed to ensure America leads the world in evaluating frontier AI models and advancing the technical standards that protect our national and economic security,” a Commerce Department spokesperson told MeriTalk. 

Most recently, Fall spent nearly four years as vice president for applied sciences at technology research nonprofit MITRE, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Previously, Fall was director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science during the latter half of the first Trump administration. He has also held senior management roles at the Office of Naval Research, and was the assistant director for defense programs and lead for national security and international affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 

Fall’s selection for the role comes a week after the Washington Post reported that Collin Burns was asked to resign from role of CAISI director. Burns was removed after the White House realized he had previously worked for Anthropic, according to the Post.  

Burns’ LinkedIn profile shows he had served as a member of technical staff for Anthropic since December 2024. The Trump administration has been locked in legal battle with Anthropic after the AI company told the Pentagon its AI models could not be used in mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. 

CAISI has received significant attention from Congress recently, particularly from Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who has called for codifying CAISI as a permanent unit of the NIST.