Trump signs AI executive order

President Trump Thursday signed an executive order calling for the development of an AI action plan within 180 days that would “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance.”

“The United States has long been at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation, driven by the strength of our free markets, world-class research institutions, and entrepreneurial spirit,” the order states. “To maintain this leadership, we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas. With the right Government policies, we can solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.”

Titled “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” the order calls for the OMB director, select agency heads and several White House tech advisors — including Trump’s new special advisor for AI and Crypto, David Sacks — to develop a plan for the Trump administration’s approach to AI.

Sacks will be expected to do so alongside the assistant to the president for science and technology and the assistant to the president for national security affairs. This will also require coordination with other executive officials and department heads like the assistant to the president for economic policy, the assistant to the president for domestic policy and the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Sacks, along with the assistant to the president for national security affairs and other department leadership “deemed relevant,” are also tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of all policies, regulations and directives leftover from former President Joe Biden’s October 2023 AI executive order — which Trump rescinded his first day in office — and updating or revoking them to be conducive to Trump’s new AI order. 

“For any such agency actions identified, the heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, suspend, revise, or rescind such actions, or propose suspending, revising, or rescinding such actions,” the order text reads. 

A fact sheet released with the new order calls Biden’s directive “dangerous” and containing “unnecessarily burdensome requirements for companies developing and deploying AI that would stifle private sector innovation and threaten American technological leadership.”

OMB is granted 60 days to revise Memorandums M-24-10 and M-24-18, both of which were issued under the Biden administration and were related to AI technology procurement and usage in the government. 

After Trump promised on the campaign trail to repeal Biden's executive order on AI, many expected anti-bias provisions to draw extra scrutiny as the new administration looks to clear barriers to the development and use of the technology.

The new order says that AI systems should be "free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas."

While an AI-focused order from the first Trump administration, which Biden left on the books, pointed to civil rights and civil liberties protections, the latest order makes no such reference.

Trump has also been working to roll back DEIA work across government more broadly.

How the Biden-era OMB guidance released to agencies regarding how to use AI fares under the new administration — and what happens to sections with additional requirements for systems that impact people's rights or safety and provisions related to equity — remains to be seen. 

"This looks like an attempt to strip all the civil rights protections out from the government's own use of AI," Nik Marda, who formerly worked at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Biden administration, said of the new order. 

"That's not only bad policy given the many real bias and discrimination risks from AI, but it's also a significant departure from both the bipartisan law that mandates this guidance and Trump's own 2020 executive order on AI — both of which name civil rights as an objective for federal use of AI,” he added.

Initial industry reactions aren’t shocked at the focus on keeping the U.S. competitive in AI innovation, but note that this is just the Trump administration’s jumping-off point on AI policy.

“Today’s executive order is a placeholder until the Administration has a chance to develop a full strategy for executing that vision,” Americans for Responsible Innovation Executive Director Eric Gastfriend told Nextgov/FCW. “Following the repeal of the Biden AI EO earlier this week, agencies had already frozen work on AI policies initiated by the last Administration, so this new instruction shouldn’t come as a surprise.”

Along with new AI order, Trump also signed a cryptocurrency executive order, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” which seeks to bolster the U.S. cryptocurrency and digital asset market landscape through ensuring that private citizens and entities have access to using digital assets, as well as providing regulatory clarity.