Bessent Sidelines Treasury's Own AI Adviser After He Warned Industry About White House Policy

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this summer reassigned Chief Information Officer Sam Corcos away from AI policy work and barred him from further industry contact on the subject, after Corcos held unauthorized conversations with executives at OpenAI and Anthropic in which he warned that unnamed White House officials were pushing a licensing regime he called burdensome, according to a report citing administration officials. Corcos, a former DOGE official, remains Treasury's CIO and continues other technology roles but no longer works on AI matters.

The episode reflects unresolved infighting inside the administration over how aggressively to regulate advanced AI models, with some officials favoring mandatory pre-deployment review and others a voluntary framework; one official said sidelining Corcos removed one of the few technically fluent voices from the debate.

A Treasury spokesperson said Corcos "remains involved in providing policy guidance" in his area of expertise; the White House said it is balancing "innovation and security." No policy change has been announced.