As higher ed strives to find the best uses for artificial intelligence, President Donald Trump is moving to block what he calls “excessive” state-by-state AI regulations.
Some state laws cover privacy, but Trump’s latest executive order calls for an overriding federal AI framework that would “preempt state AI laws that stifle innovation.”
“We remain in the earliest days of this technological revolution and are in a race with adversaries for supremacy within it,” Trump’s order says. “To win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation. But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative.”
Trump contends that AI companies must now navigate 50 different “regulatory regimes,” some of which require “entities to embed ideological bias within models” that could generate false results.
All state laws remain in place. The administration says its first steps will be to:
- Establish an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge “unconstitutional, preempted or otherwise unlawful” state laws that harm innovation.
- Evaluate laws that conflict with national AI policy priorities and withhold Broadband Equity Access and Deployment funding from any state with such AI laws.
- “Limit states’ ability to force AI companies to deceive consumers, including determining whether laws force companies to embed DEI into their models.”
Trump’s order says the national framework would not eliminate child safety protections contained in state laws.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has criticized the AI executive order since it began circulating in draft form last month.
“Stripping states of jurisdiction to regulate AI is a subsidy to Big Tech and will prevent states from protecting against online censorship of political speech, predatory applications that target children, violations of intellectual property rights and data center intrusions on power/water resources,” DeSantis said on X last mont.
In Florida, a law took effect in October, making it illegal to produce sexual images of a person using AI or similar technologies without their permission, another issue plaguing school districts.
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