President Donald Trump made a major change in federal oversight of the quickly developing technology when he revoked the Biden administration’s expansive executive order governing AI.
Announced Monday, the action instantly stops the establishment of important safety and transparency standards for AI developers. When Biden signed the order in 2023, it compelled top AI businesses to provide the federal government with safety test findings and other vital data for powerful AI systems. Additionally, it led to the establishment of the US AI Safety Institute, which is a division of the Commerce Department, with the goal of developing best practices and voluntary guidelines for the use of the technology.
Trump didn’t say right away what would happen instead of the order, but the government is likely to stay out of it more. Before he returned to the White House, Trump said that Biden’s rules on AI were too strict and slowed down technological progress. Trump also made David Sacks, a venture investor who has long been against regulating tech, his crypto-AI czar.
Trump’s revocation has cast doubt on the direction of US AI policy at a time when other nations are vying to establish guidelines for the disruptive technology. The AI Act, which was passed by the EU last year, may be the most extensive set of regulations pertaining to AI to date. The regulations forbid facial recognition and mandate stringent regulation of “high-risk” AI utilized in fields like as law enforcement and healthcare, among other initiatives.
Biden’s approach is probably going to be continued by the Trump administration in some ways, such encouraging US competitiveness in AI relative to China. Trump has presented the worldwide competition for supremacy in AI as a matter of national security. Along with securing foreign investments in AI and related infrastructure projects, he has pledged to increase domestic energy output to satisfy the demands of the technology.
Throughout his first term, Trump signed two executive orders on AI that raised funds for research and development and created a set of guidelines for the government’s safe and reliable use of the technology.
Some states have created their own frameworks because Washington has had difficulty advancing federal law on AI, except from Biden’s executive order.
Legislators have enacted a number of generative AI-related bills in California, home to many of the leading AI startups. These bills include measures to combat AI deepfakes and increase training data transparency. The state’s second contentious law, which would have put a number of safety regulations on AI businesses, was eventually vetoed due to strong industry resistance.
In the meanwhile, legislation to shield individuals against algorithmic discrimination in hiring has been passed in Colorado and Illinois. A new directive from the governor will also mandate that companies in New York report job losses connected to AI.
