Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a voluntary framework for the federal government to vet powerful new AI models before they are released. Tuesday’s highly anticipated order represents an attempt by the president to tighten his grip on cybersecurity and national security threats posed by AI, tacking against his earlier deregulatory stance.
Under the new rules, tech companies would be asked to share their AI models with the government for a voluntary review, up to 30 days before a public release. The Trump administration says doing so will allow them to improve national security, particularly with regards to cybersecurity.
The executive order stops short of imposing mandatory review requirements on tech companies building AI models, a rumored feature of earlier versions of the executive order. Some of Trump’s more hardline Maga supporters had been pushing him for a stricter process, while tech industry supporters advocated for keeping the reins loose.
Still, the executive order is yet another sign that Trump is moving away from his initial low-regulation approach to AI. One of his first actions as president was to revoke a Biden-era executive order that established standards for safely developing AI.
The new guardrails come amid rising fears that the latest AI models can be dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. Anthropic’s Mythos, a model with advanced cybersecurity capabilities, has raised concerns among AI safety experts, governments and tech companies, for its ability to exploit vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale in widely used software.
Last month, the Trump administration struck a deal with Microsoft, Google DeepMind and xAI to review early models of their new AI models before they are released. (The federal government recently removed details of that agreement from its website, although it’s unclear why.) The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), part of the US Department of Commerce, already has similar deals with OpenAI and Anthropic. The federal government says this kind of information sharing is standard practice and important for national security, although some free speech advocates have warned that too much government control could lead to censorship.
The National Security Agency and the Department of Defense will help determine which AI models need government scrutiny, and the treasury department will play a key role in finding vulnerabilities in AI models. The Trump administration also directed the government to hire more cybersecurity and AI professionals, and ensure there are stronger cybersecurity systems at key infrastructure, like hospitals and banks.
Trump announced another AI-focused executive order in December aimed at preventing states from regulating AI, which created a federal taskforce to challenge states’ AI laws.
