A New Executive Order By President Trump Establishes A ‘Single National Framework’ For AI And Limits Power Of The States – AfroTech

President Donald Trump is placing guardrails around AI’s influence across states.

He has signed an executive order that will introduce a “single national framework” for AI, according to CNN. This will also limit the states from placing their own regulations on the technology. The executive order states, “to win, United States AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation. But excessive State regulation thwarts this imperative,” CNBC reports.

This comes at a time when tech leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have been adamant that state regulations would limit the nation’s AI race against China and slow progress altogether, per CNN.

“This is an executive order that orders aspects of your administration to take decisive action to ensure that AI can operate within a single national framework in this country, as opposed to being subject to state-level regulation that could potentially cripple the industry,” White House aide Will Scharf said of the executive order in the Oval Office, according to CNN.

For the signing of the order, Trump was joined by AI and crypto czar David Sacks, tech investor and podcaster Chamath Palihapitiya, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

AI Litigation Task Force

What’s more, the executive order also calls for the attorney general to create the AI Litigation Task Force. It will be tasked with the single purpose of challenging state AI laws. States that are not looking to comply could receive less federal funding, according to CNBC. Within 90 days of the signing of the executive order, the Secretary of Commerce must make it clear to the states who will be eligible to receive funding through the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. According to a press release, the program provides high-speed internet to Americans through partnerships to build the infrastructure.

Brad Carson, president of Americans for Responsible Innovation and a leader of the pro-AI regulation super PAC Public First, doesn’t have positive sentiments around the order. He believes it will “hit a brick wall in the courts” and said it “directly attacks the state-passed safeguards that we’ve seen vocal public support for over the past year, all without any replacement at the federal level,” per ABC 7.

Collin McCune, head of government affairs at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, supported the order but stated on X that Congress would be the one to “provide long-term clarity” on AI regulation at the national level.