AI’s usefulness depends on whether we can trust it to act alone

A major shift in the approach to AI governance is underway at the federal level, though the matter is far from settled. In early June, the White House issued an executive order on AI innovation and security and National Security Presidential Memorandum-11 on AI in the national security enterprise, as a new generation of models gained powerful cyber capabilities.

Before the order’s own review framework was operational, the administration invoked export-control authority to restrict Anthropic’s Fable 5 and the Mythos model behind it. OpenAI, meanwhile, limited the release of GPT-5.6 pending government sign-off. This upheaval is unfolding even as agencies and companies race to integrate AI agents into everyday workflows. But far beyond the national security headlines lie questions of secure deployment and whether these systems can be trusted to act.

Agentic AI is ultimately about delegation. A system that can draft an email, search a database, file a form, write code, monitor a network, or route a request is no longer merely producing information. It is being trusted to act, often across multiple steps before a human reviews the result. And these systems are improving fast. 

The Model Evaluation and Threat Research organization, which evaluates frontier AI systems, tracks progress on how long a task would take a human expert, and whether AI can complete it reliably. In 2025, that threshold was doubling every seven months. More recent estimates suggest it’s closer to four months. The trajectory is clear. Now, institutions must build the capacity to govern agents while meaningful human control is still possible. 

Properly deployed, agents could transform the relationship between citizens and government. A small business navigating licensing could spend more time serving customers and less on paperwork. A veteran filing a benefits claim could shave weeks off a process that today takes months. Agencies could use agents to remove unnecessary steps, reduce........

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