US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order this week that he said would create a single national rule for artificial intelligence, which the industry has said is necessary to override disparate laws passed by US states.
The move would deliver a win for Big Tech companies that have cultivated close relationships with the White House, and likely draw consternation from both Democratic and Republican state leaders who have said they need the ability to protect state residents.
“There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI… I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something,” Trump said in a post on his social media site, Truth Social.
Trump did not provide details but Reuters reported last month that the US president was considering an executive order that would seek to preempt state laws on AI through lawsuits and by withholding federal funding.
ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Google, Meta Platforms META.O, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz have called for national AI standards instead of a 50-state patchwork of laws, saying the laws stifle innovation. The companies argue that the US will fall behind China on AI development if states are allowed to regulate the technology.
And yet state leaders from both major political parties have stressed the need for AI guardrails. Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, introduced legislation he said would create an AI bill of rights including data privacy, parental controls and consumer protections.
Other states have passed laws prohibiting the use of AI to create nonconsensual sexual imagery, banning unauthorized political deepfakes and seeking to prevent AI from being used to discriminate. California, home to several major AI companies, will require major developers to explain plans to mitigate potential catastrophic risks.
Trump last month called on Congress to add language blocking state AI laws to an upcoming defense bill. The proposal has faced pushback from Republican and Democratic state lawmakers and attorneys general.
“Congress can’t fail to create real safeguards and then block the states from stepping up,” North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, said at the time.
The Senate voted 99-1 against an effort to block AI laws this year after pushback from state leaders and consumer groups.
