President Donald Trump’s new executive order seeks to eliminate state AI laws in an effort to remove regulatory barriers for AI vendors and establish a national policy. He also claimed that the order is an effort to ensure that the US wins the AI geopolitical race.
“To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without burdensome regulation,” Trump’s executive order, signed on December 11, said. said“But excessive state regulation thwarts this imperative,”
The executive order states that State-by-State Regulation Creates a set of directives, and it directed the Justice Department to establish an AI Litigation Task Force that would challenge restrictive state laws passed by the administration. The executive order also asks the Commerce Secretary to consider withholding federal funds from states with restrictive AI laws.
The order comes years after several states, including New York, California and most recently Colorado, enacted AI laws in the absence of a federal regulatory framework.
“This probably doesn’t come as any surprise to states and municipalities,” Michael Bennett, associate vice chancellor for data, science and artificial intelligence strategy at the University of Illinois Chicago, said in an exclusive news analysis. Targeting AIAn AI Business Podcast.
He described the order as “quite significant” for states that established laws attempting to Regulate AI Systems,
“Not only does this entangle this with national politics, but it is no coincidence that this executive order comes less than a year after the midterm elections,” Bennett said.
He, in a way, hopes the states and municipalities involved will fight back.
Bennett said, “I’m sure the states have been sophisticated and visionary enough to create and enforce these laws and that they have heard what the administration has been saying for almost a year — namely that it opposes local and state regulation.” “My impression is that as a result of not being surprised, they too have locked themselves in to protest this executive order.”
