President Donald Trump’s new executive order looks to override state AI laws in an effort to remove regulatory hurdles for AI vendors and to establish a national policy. He also claimed the order is a push to ensure that the U.S. wins the AI geopolitical race.
“To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation,” Trump’s executive order, signed Dec. 11, stated. “But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative.”
The executive order stated that having state-by-state regulation creates a patchwork of directives, and it instructed the Department of Justice to establish an AI Litigation Task Force that will challenge what the administration perceives to be restrictive state laws. The executive order also asked the Secretary of Commerce to consider withholding federal funds from states with restrictive AI laws.
The order comes years after many states, including New York, California and most recently Colorado, have enacted AI laws in the absence of a federal regulatory framework.
“This is probably not coming as any kind of surprise to states and municipalities,” said Michael Bennett, associate vice chancellor for data, science and Artificial Intelligence Strategy at the University of Illinois Chicago, on a special news analysis of Targeting AI, an AI Business podcast.
He described the order as being “quite significant” for states that established laws in an effort to regulate AI systems.
“Not only does it entangle that with national politics, it’s not a coincidence that this executive order arrives within less than a year of the midterm elections,” Bennett said.
He, for one, expects that the states and municipalities involved will fight back.
“I’m sure that the states have been sophisticated enough and forward-looking enough to create and implement these laws have heard what the administration has been saying for almost a year now — namely that it opposes local and or state regulation,” Bennett said. “My assumption is that as a result of not being surprised, they’ve also locked and loaded themselves to resist this executive order.”