The White House’s Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR’s Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 7, 2026 · 1H 5M

The White House’s Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR’s Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express

from Hard Fork · host The New York Times

This week, the White House announced a new framework for regulating A.I. models, but it isn’t letting the public read it. We break down what we know about the rules and what the implications are for the industry and A.I. safety as a whole.  Then, yet another report details new incidents in which A.I. agents have gone rogue. Chris Painter, the president of METR, an independent A.I. evaluation organization, joins to discuss how we get these models under control.  And finally, we're hopping on the Hot Mess Express for the very last time. We’ll rate the craziest tech headlines from the week, including Google’s announcement that Demis Hassabis is stepping into a new role.    Guests: Chris Painter, president of METR.    Additional Reading: White House Readies A.I. Framework to Review Security Risks Inside Trump's AI framework How Do You Measure an A.I. Boom? METR’s Frontier Risk Report Google Shakes Up A.I. Leadership Did an A.I. Music App Just Snitch on the Song of the Summer? This AI Assistant Wants to Make Up for Your Boyfriend’s Incompetence Google Earth’s AI deepfake tool only lasted one day US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference Contractor who built Colossus and Colossus II says Elon Musk owes him colossal amount of money   We want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok.   Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 7, 2026

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A few details from the White House’s A.I. plan have leaked to the news media, but the administration has officially communicated almost nothing.

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The White House’s Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR’s Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express

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