The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a United States public-policy research and advocacy organization that presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It was founded on October 24, 2003 by John Podesta, who served as its first president and chief executive, as a Democratic counterpart to conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute (Source: en.wikipedia.org). Its current president and chief executive is Neera Tanden, who rejoined CAP in that role after serving in the Biden administration and had previously led both CAP and its affiliated advocacy arm, the Center for American Progress Action Fund (Source: americanprogress.org). Patrick Gaspard, formerly president of the Open Society Foundations, was its third president and chief executive (Source: americanprogress.org).
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Public-policy research and advocacy organization |
| Founded | October 24, 2003 |
| Founder | John Podesta |
| President and CEO | Neera Tanden |
| Affiliate | Center for American Progress Action Fund |
AI policy positions
Frontier-model oversight. In an August 6, 2026 article, CAP's Adam Conner argued that the administration's framework for frontier AI models was "voluntary" in name only and amounted to a licensing system: "Without any explicit statutory authority from Congress, and in near-total secrecy, President Donald Trump has assumed control over the release of powerful new frontier AI models through the functional equivalent of a licensing regime—determining the standards those models must meet, who can have access to them early, and when companies may release them to the public" (Source: americanprogress.org).
US–China pacing of frontier AI. A September 10, 2026 analysis by Adam Conner, Damian Murphy and Jonathan Fritz urged the United States and China to use their September 2026 government AI dialogue to discuss moderating the speed of frontier AI development, or "pacing the frontier." The accompanying release lists goals including an "AI red phone" for urgent safety concerns, a definition of the "genuine security threat" from frontier AI that would trigger pacing steps, a working group to share how each side uses testing and restrictions, and a joint declaration that alignment and model-control research is a public good to be shared. It states that "what's needed is not semiconductors, energy, or capital, but rather time" (Source: americanprogress.org). The analysis cites the employee "pacing the frontier" open letter endorsed by OpenAI and Anthropic and recent containment incidents, acknowledges critics who argue China would not be a good-faith counterpart, and says neither government has to agree that frontier AI should be paused (Source: americanprogress.org). Inside AI Policy reported the call on September 15, 2026, framing it as a proposed agreement to be pursued at a ministerial meeting and a summit between Trump and Xi Jinping (Source: insideaipolicy.com). A later CAP piece listed deliberate pacing, a red phone, a pacing working group and shared safety research among priorities for Xi's state visit to Washington (Source: americanprogress.org). The proposal's place among other 2026 pacing proposals is discussed at Coordinated slowdown proposals compared and Khanna letter to Alibaba on pacing the frontier (September 16, 2026).
Regulatory sandboxes. In a September 2026 report, Nicole Alvarez and Adam Conner argued that Sen. Ted Cruz's SANDBOX Act "uses the goal of promoting AI innovation to cloak a sweeping deregulatory agenda," letting companies and the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy seek waivers or modifications of nearly any federal rule, and concluded that "Congress should reject the SANDBOX Act and any similar proposal that uses AI as a vehicle for broad regulatory waivers without significant safeguards" (The SANDBOX Act Uses AI Policy as a Trojan Horse for Unfettered Deregulation (Center for American Progress, September 2026)). The report argues that the bill sets no threshold for how central AI must be to an activity, weights agency review toward approval, shields participants from enforcement of waived rules, concentrates authority in the OSTP director, and raises nondelegation and separation-of-powers concerns by letting the executive suspend rules Congress required (The SANDBOX Act Uses AI Policy as a Trojan Horse for Unfettered Deregulation (Center for American Progress, September 2026)). Inside AI Policy reported the position on September 25, 2026 as opposition to "any legislation resembling" the SANDBOX Act (Source: insideaipolicy.com). See AI Regulatory Sandbox.
Deployment safeguards. A CAP analysis argued that third-party deployments of AI models need mandated safeguards, including end-user reporting, content-safety tooling and standardized incident disclosure, because voluntary developer terms do not reliably bind downstream deployers (Source: americanprogress.org; see Responsible AI Deployment).
Fiscal effects of AI. A CAP report covered in June 2026 concluded that AI-driven productivity gains could help stabilize the national debt within a roughly 10-year window but were unlikely on their own to resolve long-term US fiscal challenges without choices on spending and taxes (Source: insideaipolicy.com; see AI Labor Disruption).
Coalition activity. CAP was one of 28 organizations to sign the September 9, 2026 letter led by Americans for Responsible Innovation to President Trump on public release of the White House frontier-AI review framework (Coalition letter to President Trump on public release of the White House frontier-AI review framework (September 2026)).
Relationships
- related: Coordinated slowdown proposals compared — CAP's state-level US–China pacing proposal
- related: Khanna letter to Alibaba on pacing the frontier (September 16, 2026) — contemporaneous pacing proposal addressed to a foreign developer
- related: We Must Pace the Frontier (Amodei, September 2026) — the developer-side pacing argument CAP's analysis draws on
- related: Responsible AI Deployment, AI Labor Disruption — CAP analyses cited on those pages
- related: Coalition letter to President Trump on public release of the White House frontier-AI review framework (September 2026) — signatory
- related: Frontier AI Governance — de facto licensing critique
- contradicts: SANDBOX Act (S. 2750) — The SANDBOX Act Uses AI Policy as a Trojan Horse for Unfettered Deregulation (Center for American Progress, September 2026), 2026 report opposing the bill
- related: AI Regulatory Sandbox, Ted Cruz, Nicole Alvarez, Adam Conner