President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to neuter state laws that limit the artificial intelligence industry, a win for tech companies that have lobbied against regulation of the booming technology.
The order grants broad authority to the attorney general to sue states and overturn laws that do not support the "United States’ global AI dominance", putting dozens of AI safety and consumer protection laws at risk. If states keep their laws in place, Trump directed federal regulators to withhold funds for broadband and other projects.
Trump, who has said it is important for America to dominate AI, has criticised the state laws for generating a confusing patchwork of regulations. He said his order would create one federal regulatory framework that would override the state laws, and added that it was critical to keep the US ahead of China in the technology.
“It’s got to be one source,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, surrounded by officials including David Sacks, the AI and crypto czar. “You can’t go to 50 different sources.”
Trump has increasingly embraced the AI industry, signing executive orders to limit regulation, provide access to federal data and make it easier for companies to build infrastructure to power the technology. He has also knocked down barriers to exporting chips that drive AI, including this week, and publicly praised the companies’ leaders. And he has given Sacks, who is also a Silicon Valley investor, heavy influence over policy decisions.
The order on Thursday, which has sparked broad, bipartisan opposition, is likely to be challenged in court by states and consumer groups on the grounds that only Congress has the authority to override state laws, legal experts said.
If Trump succeeds in neutering state laws, he should instead offer a robust national standard on AI regulations, said Wes Hodges, the acting director of the Centre for Technology and the Human Person at the Right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
“Doing so before establishing commensurate national protections is a carve-out for Big Tech,” Hodges said.
New generative AI technology that can imitate human writing and voices and create realistic videos and images has taken off. But the technology can be misused to trick consumers, and chatbots have been documented offering harmful advice to minors, among other issues.
States have rushed to fill a void of federal regulation with their own laws on AI safety, requiring certain safety measures from companies and putting guardrails around the way the technology can be used. This year, all 50 states and territories introduced AI legislation and 38 states adopted about 100 laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
California has passed a law that require the biggest AI models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, to test for safety and to disclose the results. South Dakota passed a law banning deep fakes, which are realistic AI-generated videos, in political advertisements within months of an election. Utah, Illinois and Nevada passed laws related to AI chatbots and mental health, requiring disclosures that users are engaging with chatbots and adding restrictions on data collection.
New York Times News Service
