Microsoft, Google and xAI will let the government test their AI models before launch

 

In this photo illustration, AI apps DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Perplexity seen displayed on a smartphone.

Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Google, Microsoft and xAI will share unreleased versions of their AI models with the government to curb cybersecurity threats, the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced on Tuesday.

The partnership comes after Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos AI model pushed concerns about AI’s impact on cybersecurity to a tipping point last month, helping prompt the White House to weigh a formal review process for AI.

The new agreements allow the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, within the US Department of Commerce, to evaluate new AI models and their potential impact on national security and public safety ahead of their launch. The center will also conduct research and testing after AI models are deployed and has already completed more than 40 AI model evaluations.

“Independent, rigorous measurement science is essential to understanding frontier AI and its national security implications,” CAISI Director Chris Fall said in statement. “These expanded industry collaborations help us scale our work in the public interest at a critical moment.”

Mythos, which Anthropic said is “far ahead” of other models in terms of cybersecurity, sparked a wave of concerns among governments, banks and utility companies over the past month. The company said it doesn’t feel comfortable releasing the model publicly yet and is restricting access to a select group of approved organizations. It has also briefed senior US government officials on its capabilities.

OpenAI also said last week that it’s making its most advanced AI models available to all vetted levels of the government with the aim of getting ahead of AI-enabled threats.

The partnerships could make it easier for CAISI to test AI by providing more resources, said Jessica Ji, senior research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

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Her murder went unsolved for 30 years. The suspect vanished under a new alias until now

 

An undated image of Cindy Wanner released by the Placer County Sheriff's Office.

Placer County Sheriff's Office

For more than 30 years, the answer to who killed Cindy Wanner remained much of a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement after she vanished from a Northern California home leaving everything behind, including her baby.

Her sudden disappearance in 1991 rattled residents of Granite Bay, a suburb of Sacramento where the 35-year-old mother of two had gone to clean her sister’s home, investigators said. Wanner’s 11-month-old baby was buckled into a high chair and crying, without her mom, when a relative arrived to the home that day.

An extensive search for Wanner ended three weeks later when her body was found in a remote area about 40 miles from her sister’s home, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

But many questions remained about who was behind Wanner’s death – and why.

Over the years, law enforcement continued testing evidence without any sufficient results until newer DNA testing technology gave them new hope in finding Wanner’s killer.

Suspect flew under the radar for decades

Detectives recently submitted a “final piece of evidence” from Wanner’s case to a neighboring sheriff’s office forensics lab, which yielded a match identifying James Lawhead Jr., 64, as a suspect, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said.

While the latest DNA match pointed them to Lawhead finding him became a challenge.

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Investigators looking for Lawhead found no trace of him and “it appeared that he just disappeared since 2005,” Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a news conference earlier this week.

“We explored all possibilities on what could have happened, whether he was still living under a fake identity, whether he had left the country, or whether he was even deceased,” Woo said, noting the sheriff’s office checked records in both the US and Canada.

Detectives asked other agencies for help and the Scottsdale Police Department, using the Arizona Department of Transportation’s facial recognition system, identified a match, Woo said. The system is typically used to flag fake driver’s licenses, state IDs and suspected identity theft.

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In Arizona, he wasn’t known by his real name. Lawhead went by the name of Vincent Reynolds, the sheriff’s office said, and was living in Bullhead City – near the state’s border with Nevada and nearly 600 miles away from Placer County.

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Person who jumped perimeter fence is hit and killed by Frontier plane during takeoff on Denver runway, airport says

 

One person was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane two minutes after jumping a perimeter fence and crossing a runway at Denver International Airport late Friday, the airport said.

The pedestrian, who has not been identified, is not believed to be an airport employee, the airport said in a statement.

Flight 4345, an Airbus A321, was departing from Denver en route to Los Angeles and carried 224 passengers and seven crew members, Frontier Airlines said in the statement.

There are about 36 miles of perimeter fence surrounding the airport. An inspection after the incident found the fence was intact, but the airport said it will perform an “incident analysis” in the coming days and review its perimeter security program.

The airport said it uses video surveillance and a “combination of technology” to monitor the area and performs “continuous perimeter fence inspections.”

The runway has reopened and passengers evacuated from the plane were placed on other flights, according to the airport.

12 people injured on plane

“The aircraft reportedly struck a pedestrian on the runway during takeoff,” the airline said. The incident happened at 11:19 p.m. local time, according to the airport. The flight had been scheduled to depart at 10:39 p.m.

“Smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff. Passengers were then safely evacuated via slides as a matter of precaution,” the statement said.

A brief engine fire was quickly extinguished by the Denver Fire Department, the airport said in a statement early Saturday.

Emergency crews responded to the scene and passengers were taken to the terminal. Twelve people reported minor injuries and five were transported to local hospitals, according to the airport.

Cervantes speaks with KCNC.

KCNC

Passenger Jose Cervantes said he had just started feeling the plane tilt up when he heard a thud.

“I looked to my right, and I just see the right wing just on fire and like, it’s exploding,” Cervantes told CNN affiliate KCNC. “The aircraft lands back down, and they kind of like swivel side to side, and then they stop, shut it off right away, and then the cabin starts to fill up with smoke.”
Updated May 11, 2026

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