The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced on May 29 that it renamed and expanded the scope of its artificial intelligence (AI) consortium and is inviting new members to join.
In a press release, the agency said the former AI Safety Institute Consortium is now called the NIST AI Consortium. NIST said the consortium will continue some of its previous work, while concentrating on AI measurement, innovation, and adoption.
The group will work to build an AI evaluation system, invest in AI-enabled science, and promote the use of U.S.-developed AI technology and systems. NIST said the expanded scope is part of its broader push to support the development and adoption of critical and emerging technologies in partnership with U.S. industry.
“We are inviting technically capable organizations to join the NIST AI Consortium to address the challenges associated with the development and deployment of AI,” said Deputy NIST Director Craig Burkhardt. “To encourage more extraordinary AI technological innovations, NIST is seeking to expand its AI measurement efforts by harnessing the broader community’s interests and capabilities.”
NIST said the reorganized consortium will operate through six task groups. These include:
- The AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification and Validation Zero Draft Task Group
- The Annotation for AI Risks and Validity Task Group
- The AI Evaluation and Measurement Methods Task Group
- The Bias Effects and Notable Generative AI Limitations Group
- The AI Documentation Cards Task Group
- The Chemical and Biological Security Task Group
NIST initially announced the consortium in February 2024. The group ultimately brought together more than 280 organizations to develop science-based guidelines and standards for AI measurement. They include state and local governments, nonprofits, and big tech companies, such as Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI.
NIST said it will accept letters of interest from new organizations to participate in the consortium “on an ongoing basis with regular periods of review for new applicants, likely occurring biannually.” The first review period will begin in June 2026.
According to NIST’s project website, participation is open to organizations that can contribute expertise, products, data, or models to consortium activities.
Existing members do not have to reapply, but they must sign an amendment agreeing to the consortium’s updated scope.
The news comes almost a year after NIST similarly renamed the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute to the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), also dropping “safety” from its name. CAISI is the federal entity responsible for evaluating frontier AI models.