Trump tiptoes toward real AI oversight in new executive order

With an AI arms race already well underway, President Trump finally took a small step toward governmental AI oversight by signing a new executive order.

Trump's order, entitled "Promoting advanced artificial intelligence innovation and security," first boasts of his administration's ability to cut red tape on AI advances, while also acknowledging the national security considerations that artificial intelligence raises. The order calls for administration leaders like the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to, among other things, "design a voluntary framework with AI developers through which developers would be able to" submit new models to the government for a period up to 30 days to ensure their safety.

The order tasks the Secretary of the Treasury with forming "an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse, in voluntary collaboration with the AI industry and operators of critical infrastructure," in the next 30 days.

At the beginning of his second term, Trump wanted nearly no limits on AI, hoping it would bolster the stock market and serve as a leg up on China, which is also investing heavily in AI. Trump signed an executive order in December that banned states from enacting AI regulations.

With AI-related safety and military concerns growing, Trump considered signing an AI executive order last month. That was partly scrapped, according to the New York Times, over dissent from David Sacks, Trump's former AI czar and current co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sacks wanted the timeline for the governmental clearinghouse cut from 90 days to 30; when that change was made, Sacks gave the revised order his blessing, the Times reports.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was also instrumental in the new executive order.

Hegseth has pushed for the military to use the latest AI technology, but has encountered resistance from Anthropic, which cited concerns about its use in drones and domestic surveillance. In response, Hegseth designated the company behind Claude a "a supply-chain risk to national security." Anthropic sued to reverse that designation.

This story is developing...