‘Unnecessary’
The signing comes after a turbulent few weeks in which the White House appeared close to unveiling the measure, only to pull back abruptly.
According to Politico and other media, David Sacks, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who served as Trump’s AI and crypto tsar, called the President to warn that the measure would slow innovation and hurt the US in its AI race with China – blindsiding White House staff who believed Sacks supported the order.
Sacks wrote on X last week that “unnecessary regulation is the biggest threat to innovation in America”, adding that winning the AI race required clearing “bureaucratic hurdles” from state legislatures and “woke” Washington politicians.
David Sacks. Photo / Getty Images
The order also instructs the Treasury, the National Security Agency and the CISA cybersecurity agency to form an “AI cybersecurity clearinghouse” in voluntary collaboration with industry and critical infrastructure operators to identify software vulnerabilities and find ways to fix them.
Trump scrapped a Biden-era AI oversight order on his first day back in the White House.
US President Joe Biden’s 2023 order required AI companies to share safety test results with the Government and leaned heavily on voluntary commitments – already a light-touch approach that fell short of what many experts had called for.
By contrast, the European Union’s AI Act – which entered into force in 2024 – sets binding rules for high-risk AI systems, including mandatory transparency requirements and, for the most powerful models, obligations around safety testing and incident reporting.
“This is an important step in the right direction,” Anthony Aguirre, chief executive of Future of Life Institute, which advocates for AI safety, said.
“Voluntary frameworks are not enough, however” and the Government must be empowered “to block the release of systems that pose an unacceptable national security risk”, he added.
– AFP