SAN FRANCISCO - President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to file lawsuits against states that introduce regulations on artificial intelligence technology deemed to undermine the "global AI dominance" of the United States, doubling down on the White House's industry-friendly approach to tech policy, despite growing pushback from politicians on both sides of the aisle.
The order directs the Justice Department to sue states for bills the White House decides contradict its policy of maintaining a "minimally burdensome" regulatory framework for AI. Legal experts have said the tactic would face considerable court challenges because the Constitution gives states wide leeway to pass laws on issues not covered by federal legislation.
The order also directs federal agencies to look into withholding funding for states that pass their own laws and asks the White House advisers on technology to draft new legislation that would formalize the preemption of state AI laws through Congress.
"Until such a national standard exists, however, it is imperative that my Administration takes action to check the most onerous and excessive laws emerging from the States that threaten to stymie innovation," the order said. It singles out a Colorado law that seeks to protect citizens against discrimination by algorithms that tech industry lobbyists have also targeted.
During the signing ceremony, Trump said AI was already leading to medical breakthroughs and that the U.S. needed a thriving industry to compete geopolitically with China. He also said endangering the industry's growth could hurt the U.S. economy.
"It could be 50, 60 percent of our economy for a period of time going forward," he said.
The battle over how AI should be regulated has opened a rift inside Trump's MAGA coalition of right-wing populists and tech billionaires.
Republican figures like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri have pushed back against the White House's moves to use federal legislation to block, or "preempt," state laws on AI. In addition to pointing to the long-standing GOP tradition of defending "states' rights" to govern themselves, they argue that many Americans are concerned about the technology's impact on jobs, the potential dangers to children and its role in driving up electricity prices. Tech companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to construct power-hungry data centers to support their AI ambitions, straining the U.S. electric grid.
Trump has shot back, insisting that a patchwork of state laws might endanger America's ability to build the best AI and compete with China, an argument also made by AI executives and their lobbyists. "We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won't last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS," he wrote in a post on Truth Social Monday promising an executive order on AI this week.
Tech industry groups representing companies including Google, Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft welcomed the executive order while state politicians including California governor Gavin Newsom put out statements decrying it. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)
The order signed Thursday by Trump is almost identical to a draft circulated in November that triggered outcry from some Republican politicians and activists. But the final order includes new provisions in the section directing White House tech advisers to draft new legislation. The additions state that any draft federal AI law should not stop states from passing regulations on child safety, construction of data centers that power AI software and other digital services or state government use of AI. The carve outs mirror some of the demands made by Republican and Democratic politicians who opposed the White House's draft AI order.
The concessions may not be enough to win back the support of conservatives firmly opposed to the president's approach of clearing the way for the AI industry. "No one in the world would say an entire industry should be otherwise preempted just because you kept children safe," said Michael Toscano, director of the Family First Technology Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, a think tank that advocates for policies that support marriage and the value of traditional family structures.
The White House opted to use an executive order targeting states after a split among Senate Republicans over the need to regulate AI in July killed a proposal it backed to block all state regulation on the technology for ten years, as part of Trump's signature tax and immigration law. An attempt to revive that proposal as part of a recent defense budget bill also failed.
State lawmakers have proposed and passed dozens of provisions on AI over the last two years. They include whistleblower protections for AI company employees in California and a Texas ban on government agencies using AI to decide who gets social services.
A June survey by the Pew Research Center found that half of American adults are more concerned about AI than they are excited about it. A series of federal AI laws have been proposed in recent years, but none have made it in law, adding to the feeling of some state lawmakers that they must act to regulate the technology.