Hormuz reopening talks advance as strait stays closed EU ministers back Spain's Ceuta response as death toll rises Ebola deaths in DR Congo pass 1,600 as WHO calls response overstretched Hegseth denies munitions shortage after reports of depleted US missile stocks Mediators rebuke Israel after one of Gaza's deadliest days since the truce Ukrainian drones kill five near Moscow as Wildberries warehouses burn US says yen intervention aimed at containing Asian currency risks White House AI security review to exempt open-weight models UN warns of surging Afghan hunger as food aid funding falls short Houthis strike Saudi airport as Indian ship sinks off Yemen Russian strikes kill four in Sumy and Mykolaiv Italy suspends free movement from Spain as EU ministers back Madrid Record low rivers force more reactors offline across Europe North Korea vows military response after Japan's defence white paper Anthropic model sent phishing emails on its own in safety test US AI figures call Chinese open-weight models safer as price gap widens Jordan questions US security alliance as Iranian attacks increase Netanyahu rules out Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms Stocks hit record as US signals Hormuz deal is close Oil majors post windfall profits as Iran war lifts prices US drafts ban on Chinese datacentre components Taiwan opens war games with first blockade scenario China's weather agency forecasts Super El Nino Anthropic signs $10bn computing deal with cloud startup Officials suspect Iran behind attacks on US water utilities Russian envoy rules out evacuation after Cuban blackouts Man arrested over largest Spokane wildfire Russian insurers drop war cover after Black Sea ship attacks Floods and landslides kill at least 21 in India and Sri Lanka SpaceX revenue jumps 92% in first results since listing Gaza families bury 112 recovered from 2023 strike rubble Lebanon and Israel resume direct talks in Rome 25 states sue Trump administration over new tariffs Slowing growth weighs on Beijing's strong-yuan ambitions EU seeks to drop Palantir as NATO confirms its use Finland licenses world's first deep store for spent nuclear fuel Kashmir protests challenge Islamabad's authority US revokes visa of Brazil's ambassador in Washington Commission holds to permanent ban on Russian oil Fed chair Warsh pressed over mixed inflation signals House panel says data centres exposed US carriers to China hack Thousands of sailors stranded as blockade grips Strait of Hormuz Syria's Al Shara meets Kurdish commander Abdi Russia claims capture of Kharkiv region village Ukraine's farm sector faces $3bn hit from port closures Pilots' strike halts Argentina's grain exports 'Terror-free Türkiye' bill circulates in parliament Judge sets March trial for Paramount-Warner deal World Bank sees narrow AI window for poorer economies Russia expands shadow fleet of LNG tankers before supply ban Hormuz reopening talks advance as strait stays closed EU ministers back Spain's Ceuta response as death toll rises Ebola deaths in DR Congo pass 1,600 as WHO calls response overstretched Hegseth denies munitions shortage after reports of depleted US missile stocks Mediators rebuke Israel after one of Gaza's deadliest days since the truce Ukrainian drones kill five near Moscow as Wildberries warehouses burn US says yen intervention aimed at containing Asian currency risks White House AI security review to exempt open-weight models UN warns of surging Afghan hunger as food aid funding falls short Houthis strike Saudi airport as Indian ship sinks off Yemen Russian strikes kill four in Sumy and Mykolaiv Italy suspends free movement from Spain as EU ministers back Madrid Record low rivers force more reactors offline across Europe North Korea vows military response after Japan's defence white paper Anthropic model sent phishing emails on its own in safety test US AI figures call Chinese open-weight models safer as price gap widens Jordan questions US security alliance as Iranian attacks increase Netanyahu rules out Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms Stocks hit record as US signals Hormuz deal is close Oil majors post windfall profits as Iran war lifts prices US drafts ban on Chinese datacentre components Taiwan opens war games with first blockade scenario China's weather agency forecasts Super El Nino Anthropic signs $10bn computing deal with cloud startup Officials suspect Iran behind attacks on US water utilities Russian envoy rules out evacuation after Cuban blackouts Man arrested over largest Spokane wildfire Russian insurers drop war cover after Black Sea ship attacks Floods and landslides kill at least 21 in India and Sri Lanka SpaceX revenue jumps 92% in first results since listing Gaza families bury 112 recovered from 2023 strike rubble Lebanon and Israel resume direct talks in Rome 25 states sue Trump administration over new tariffs Slowing growth weighs on Beijing's strong-yuan ambitions EU seeks to drop Palantir as NATO confirms its use Finland licenses world's first deep store for spent nuclear fuel Kashmir protests challenge Islamabad's authority US revokes visa of Brazil's ambassador in Washington Commission holds to permanent ban on Russian oil Fed chair Warsh pressed over mixed inflation signals House panel says data centres exposed US carriers to China hack Thousands of sailors stranded as blockade grips Strait of Hormuz Syria's Al Shara meets Kurdish commander Abdi Russia claims capture of Kharkiv region village Ukraine's farm sector faces $3bn hit from port closures Pilots' strike halts Argentina's grain exports 'Terror-free Türkiye' bill circulates in parliament Judge sets March trial for Paramount-Warner deal World Bank sees narrow AI window for poorer economies Russia expands shadow fleet of LNG tankers before supply ban

Symbolic image: White House AI security review to exempt open-weight models

Symbolic image

White House AI security review to exempt open-weight models

3 sources

The White House is readying a voluntary security review for AI models that would leave open-weight systems outside mandatory government checks. US outlets reported the exemption on Wednesday.

What happened

The New York Times reports the review is voluntary and covers closed-source models, excluding those that publish the underlying code.
Bloomberg reports that Chinese open-weight models will likewise fall outside US safety testing.
The White House met OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and other developers on Tuesday, 4 August, on security testing.
Alibaba released its most capable model to date, Qwen3.8-Max, with downloadable weights on Monday, 3 August.
A research firm puts DeepSeek's V4-Flash at more than 100 times cheaper than Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.

The view from outside

All four reports come from US outlets; from Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post covered the Tuesday meeting, and no Chinese official response to the planned exemption appears in the available reporting.

What could happen next

The framework text is unpublished: scope, timetable and which agency would run the reviews are not reported.
Whether leading US developers join the voluntary process, and what follows if they decline, is open.
The New York Times describes the administration's line on open models as shifting, leaving the rules unsettled.