United States President Donald Trump, on December 11, signed an executive order aimed at curbing state-level AI regulations and accelerating the creation of a unified federal framework.
The order, titled Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, represents the administration’s most decisive move yet to preempt what it calls a “patchwork” of state rules that threaten US dominance in AI development.
In the order, Trump argues that the US is “in a race with adversaries for supremacy” in AI and that companies must be able to innovate “without cumbersome regulation”.
He directly criticises emerging state laws that seek to govern algorithmic discrimination, transparency or model outputs.
Citing Colorado’s recently enacted rules, the president claims such laws “may even force AI models to produce false results in order to avoid a ‘differential treatment or impact’ on protected groups”.
The executive order establishes a new AI Litigation Task Force inside the justice department, directing it to challenge state laws the administration views as unconstitutional or obstructive.
It also instructs the commerce department to publish, within 90 days, an evaluation identifying state AI laws that are “onerous” or inconsistent with federal policy.
Trump’s directive further calls on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to explore federal reporting and disclosure standards that could explicitly preempt conflicting state requirements.
“It is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance the United States’ global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework,” the order states.
The administration will also send Congress a legislative proposal establishing a federal artificial intelligence framework that overrides state regulations, except in areas like child safety and government procurement.
“We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution,” Trump wrote, adding, “It is imperative that we act now to ensure that America wins the AI race.”
The order comes amid escalating friction between state governments and Washington over how AI should be governed.
In recent months, scrutiny from the states has intensified as 42 attorneys general, including those from Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Illinois, warned that generative AI systems may already be violating consumer-protection and child-safety laws.
The bipartisan group has also demanded independent audits from Microsoft, Google, Meta and Apple, arguing that developers have not done enough to curb harmful or misleading outputs.
State legislatures have also moved aggressively to craft their own rules, creating the patchwork the White House says it is now trying to dismantle.
California passed its Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, which requires developers of large-scale AI systems to publish risk assessments and safety documentation.
Texas adopted a different approach, enacting criminal penalties for the possession or promotion of AI-generated obscene material involving minors.
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