Trump signs executive order seeking to block state laws on AI

Congressional efforts to regulate artificial intelligence at the federal level this year have fallen short.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening that seeks to limit the ability of states to regulate artificial intelligence while attempting to thwart some existing state laws.

The order aims "to sustain and enhance the United States’ global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI," according to text published on the White House website.

At at signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said AI companies "want to be in the United States, and they want to do it here, and we have big investment coming. But if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you could forget it."

The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an “AI Litigation Task Force” within 30 days whose "sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws" that clash with the Trump administration's vision for light-touch regulation.

In addition, the order instructs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to identify existing state laws that "require AI models to alter their truthful outputs," echoing earlier Trump administration efforts to prevent what it calls "woke AI." States found to have these and other "onerous" laws may have to enter into agreements not to enforce those statutes in order to receive discretionary federal funding.