President Donald Trump issued an executive order concerning artificial intelligence on Tuesday, nearly two weeks following his decision to delay a White House event due to worries that a comparable policy might weaken America’s competitive advantage in AI development.
The directive creates a system for federal agencies to evaluate national security threats posed by the most sophisticated AI technologies for as long as a month prior to their public launch. According to the order, the government will collaborate with reliable partners “that will have early access to covered frontier models to promote secure innovation and strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.”
The degree to which this order differs from the version he chose not to sign on May 21 remains unclear.
Trump called off an Oval Office meeting with technology industry leaders last month due to his dissatisfaction with the earlier draft’s language. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump stated to reporters during that time.
The previous proposal was described as a voluntary partnership with participating American technology firms, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.
