President Donald Trump signed an executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) aimed at revoking previous government policies that are perceived as barriers to American AI innovation.
The big picture: The executive order emphasizes the need to develop AI systems free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas to maintain global leadership in AI technology.
- While the new order does not explicitly identify the existing policies hindering AI development, it calls for a review of all policies, directives, regulations, orders, and other actions taken as a result of former President Joe Biden’s AI executive order of 2023.
- Any Biden-era actions that do not align with the new directive, emphasizing the promotion of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security, must be suspended.
- The executive order also mandates the development of an AI action plan within 180 days.
Driving the news: This move comes in the wake of Trump repealing Biden’s 2023 guardrails for fast-developing AI technology, replacing it with his own order.
- Biden’s previous AI order involved a systematic assessment of AI’s impact on various aspects, such as cybersecurity risks, education, workplaces, and public benefits, with a focus on ensuring AI tools do not cause harm to people.
- A key requirement that was rescinded by Trump on Monday was that tech companies building the most powerful AI models share details with the government about the workings of those systems before releasing them to the public.