The Trump White House is ready to regulate AI, but it's exactly the wrong body to do so, and its control could become a problem | Tech Radar
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The Trump White House is ready to regulate AI, but it's exactly the wrong body to do so, and its control could become a problem
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With little fanfare, US President Donald Trump may have signed one of the most important executive orders in his second term at the White House. With the "Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security" EO, the US government is finally putting its finger on the scale of AI development, more or less demanding that AI companies provide it with access to their Frontier Models for a period of 30 days before their public release.
Since no national US regulations currently exist for AI and much of the oversight is being left to a hodgepodge of mostly in-process state-level regulation, this is the first whiff of broad-based control.
While most of the major AI companies, including Meta, Open AI, and Anthropic, appear to support the order, they also appear caught off guard by the casual signing and have yet to weigh in.
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On X (formerly Twitter), Open AI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman posted a Bible verse at roughly the same time as Trump signed the order:
"One of the quotes I find most inspiring on a hard day: 'Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom' Ecclesiastes 9:10"
That may or may not be a commentary on Trump's order, but one could fairly wonder whether there's a hint of concern there, and in other AI halls, about White House meddling in the course of AI.
one of the quotes i find most inspiring on a hard day:"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom"Ecclesiastes 9:10 June 2, 2026
one of the quotes i find most inspiring on a hard day:"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom"Ecclesiastes 9:10 June 2, 2026
With new models coming out almost monthly and regular reports that China is closing the gap between Western models and its own model work, there are concerns that a delay to allow the US Department of War, the NSA, and other US Government trusted partners to examine these models could slow down Open AI, Anthropic, and others, and result in them and the US falling behind this crucial race.
Anthropic, which is not exactly the US Government's favorite AI purveyor, may have sparked this move to, if not control, manage the scale and growth of AI when it released its potential cybersecurity-breaking Mythos model, which could find hidden vulnerabilities in almost any vintage software.
Ostensibly, this is the kind of risk the US Government will be looking for: any threat to cybersecurity or infrastructure. But the order doesn't really specify how these agencies will carry out their work, and, to be honest, I do wonder whether the Trump administration will be digging around for other "issues."
It's highly unusual for commercial software to run through a government agency for vetting unless, say, you're in China, which demands access to all technology developed within its borders. It's one of the reasons the US Government was never comfortable with the Chinese company Byte Dance developing the Tik Tok algorithm.
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One has to wonder if global partners will soon be looking sideways at Frontier Model work subsequently provided by Anthropic, Meta, Open AI, Microsoft, and other US-based companies.
Who's to say the US government won't look for Frontier model responses that go against the US government party line on various policies? Could they also look for DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) principles and demand they be scrubbed from Frontier models before they're released?
The problem here is that this is an executive order coming from a White House that has made no bones about where it stands on a range of social issues. When people talk to their AI chatbots, they often discuss personal issues that could concern topics that run afoul of the White House's current policies and stances.
It would be better if regulation came from a bipartisan or third-party independent space, one with no stance on police beyond general principles of common good and fairness.
But because the US government cannot agree on anything, that's not going to happen.
The White House happily steps into this gap and is now in a position to regulate virtually every major model released within US shores. It might be helpful, but it could also be a recipe for disaster on many levels.
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A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.
Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.
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