Inside the White House's AI power center
TL;DR
The White House AI power center is shifting: David Sacks is less involved day to day, while Sriram Krishnan is preparing to leave. That opens space for a wider mix of Cabinet officials and aides to steer the Trump administration's AI policy. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is newly central after the Anthropic clash. He signed the letter behind the Fable and Mythos escalation, imposed export controls on Anthropic, and is discussing advanced AI model access around the G7.
Nauti's Take
AI builders should stop treating Washington like a Sacks office hour. With Lutnick, Bessent and cyber officials pulling different levers, policy becomes a product dependency: export paths, model access and enterprise deals can shift faster than your roadmap deck.
Briefingshow
The story shows AI policy less as a clean agency process and more as a power contest among Commerce, Treasury, the cyber office, and economic aides. If export controls, model access, and safety responses come from shifting centers of influence, AI labs and foreign partners get less predictable signals. That can make regulation faster, but also more erratic.
Sources