May 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday he has postponed the implementation of a planned executive order on artificial intelligence which would give the government the power to review new AI models before they are rolled out.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the decision to hold off on the order was based on concerns about U.S. competitiveness with China in the crucial technological race.
“I didn’t like certain aspects of it, I postponed it,” he said. “I think it gets in the way of, you know, 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.”
The president asserted the United States has “a very substantial standard on AI, it’s causing — it’s causing tremendous good, and it’s also bringing in a lot of jobs, tremendous numbers of jobs.”
But government review of new AI models, he added, “could have been a blocker.”
The president did not elaborate on which aspects of the highly anticipated proposed executive order he didn’t like.
The measure was drafted to enhance security measures for the latest AI models, which was to be provided by a group of national security and civilian agencies, POLITICO reported Wednesday.
Sources told the publication the latest draft of the order asked developers to submit certain types of AI models for review as much as 90 days before they’re made public.
Leaders of major AI developers such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta and Microsoft were invited to attend the planned White House event just 24 hours before it was scheduled, resulting in cancelations that annoyed Trump, the New York Times reported.
The oversight measure reverses a “hands-off” policy toward AI previously embraced by the Trump administration and comes from fears the technology is becoming too powerful and could pose a U.S. security risk, officials familiar with the discussions told the newspaper.
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