President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to preempt US states from enacting rules governing artificial intelligence, a major departure from the typical federalist structure of American government that Trump said was necessary because of the issue’s high stakes.
In an Thursday evening signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said the order would position the United States to win a competition with China to dominate the burgeoning AI industry. Coordinating policy among 50 different states would put the US at a disadvantage, Trump said, adding that Chinese President Xi Jinping did not have similar restraints.
“This will not be successful unless they have one source of approval or disapproval,” he said. “It’s got to be one source. They can’t go to 50 different sources.”
The order creates a task force to monitor state laws on AI and to challenge them in court, and directs the commerce secretary to complete a review of state laws within three months.
David Sacks, the chair of a White House board on technology, said there were more than 1,000 pending AI bills in state legislatures.
White House staff secretary Will Scharf said during the Oval Office event that the order would “ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country, as opposed to being subject to state level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry.”
“The big picture is that we’re taking steps to ensure that AI operates under a single national standard so that we can reap the benefits that will come from it.”
The order, a major assertion of presidential power over state governments and Congress, is likely to see court challenges, including from environmental groups that oppose AI expansion because of the energy resources the technology requires.
“Congress has repeatedly rejected attempts to undermine states’ and local communities’ efforts to protect themselves from the unchecked spread of AI, which is driving a wave of dangerous data center development,” Mitch Jones, the chief of policy and litigation at the advocacy group Food and Water Watch, said in a statement.
“We’ll be following the administration’s attempts to implement this farcical order, and we’ll fight it in Congress, in the states, in the courts, and with communities across this country.”
This article by States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity, was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator. It is republished under a Creative Commons license.
