Trump signs order to limit states' regulation of AI

Tech industry leaders champion the move, but lawmakers warn it cuts protections.

- QUEENIE WONG

WITH AIRCRAFT grounded in the Eaton fire, officials had to rely on ground observations in heavy smoke.

The battle between California and the White House escalated as President Trump signed an executive order to block state laws regulating artificial intelligence.

The president's power move to try to take over control of the regulation of the technology behind Chat-GPT through an executive order Thursday was applauded by his allies in Silicon Valley, who have been warning that many layers of heavy-handed rules and regulations were holding them back and could put the U.S. behind in the battle to benefit most from AI.

The order directs the attorney general to create a task force to challenge some state AI laws. States with “onerous AI laws” could lose federal funding from a broadband deployment program and other grants, the order said.

The Trump administration said the order will help U.S. companies win the AI race against countries such as China by removing “cumbersome regulation.”

It also pushes for a “minimally burdensome” national standard rather than a patchwork of laws across 50 states that the administration said makes compliance challenging, especially for startups.

“You have to have a central source of approval when they need approval. So things have to come to one source. They can’t go to California, New York and various other places,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office on Thursday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against the order, stating it “advances corruption, not innovation.”