Trump signs order for AI deregulation
The White House has stated that the US could fall behind China if it faces a “patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes” at the state level
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to limit individual state-level regulation of artificial intelligence until a national policy is adopted. The US federal government has noted that a fragmented legal landscape endangers America’s AI competitiveness compared to China.
The administration aims to avoid a scenario where a “patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes” governs what it views as an inherently interstate industry, Trump’s AI adviser David Sacks explained on X. He noted that an AI model can be created in one state, trained in another, and deployed nationwide.
Sacks said over 100 AI-related laws are already in effect at the state level, with more than 1,000 additional measures pending. “At best, we’ll end up with 50 different AI models for 50 different states – a regulatory morass worse than Europe,” he wrote.
Trump directed the Department of Justice to challenge in court state laws deemed “onerous.” Washington will also use federal grants and government contracts to encourage states to align with federal policy. These measures are described as temporary, pending Congress’s adoption of a “minimally burdensome national standard” for AI regulation.
The White House has also cited ideological concerns, accusing Democratic-led states of imposing “woke” constraints on AI developers, such as requirements aimed at preventing “algorithmic discrimination” against protected groups.
“This type of ideological meddling is how we ended up with ‘black George Washington,'” Sacks wrote, referencing a widely publicized incident last year in which Google’s Gemini image generator tended to produce race-swapped depictions of historical figures in an apparent attempt to maximize diversity.
The Trump administration and US tech firms are placing significant bets on AI as a driver of economic growth, though critics warn that massive investment in the sector is based on uncertain profit projections and may be inflating a market bubble.
There are also concerns about public backlash, as the rapid expansion of energy-intensive data centers needed to run AI systems has driven up electricity prices in some areas. Sacks emphasized that the new policy “would not force communities to host data centers they don’t want.”