President-elect Donald Trump is expected to adopt a significantly more relaxed stance toward AI regulation than the Biden administration, with policies that allow unfettered growth for AI vendors and a promise to roll back an executive order that guides AI. Given support from a Republican-controlled Congress, this hands-off approach is forecast to drive still more gains for an AI sector already expanding at a torrid pace.
“When I’m reelected, I will cancel Biden’s artificial intelligence executive order,” Trump said in a recent campaign speech. President Biden signed the AI executive order in October 2023 to lay out reporting guidelines for AI-capable computing clusters and the development of major AI models. It also provided best practices for governmental procurement and the use of artificial intelligence.
Also now uncertain is the status of the landmark agreement that the Biden administration formed with top AI vendors in July 2023. To announce the agreement, seven leading AI companies gathered at the White House: Microsoft, OpenAI, Inflection, Google, Anthropic, and Amazon. While voluntary, the commitments these vendors made involved a broad set of principles to protect Americans from the potential dangers of AI, including an agreement to prioritize research on the risks that AI poses to security and privacy. Based on Trump’s comments about the Biden AI executive order, it appears that his administration is not likely to support these commitments.
FTC commissioner Lina Khan, who launched an antitrust investigation against Microsoft when the company hired co-founders and key staffers from AI startup Inflection, will almost certainly be replaced by an executive who aligns with AI industry interests. Similarly, any Department of Justice officials in the Biden administration who might have initiated antitrust actions will likely to be replaced. These personnel changes in the FTC and DOJ will allow large AI vendors to acquire and merge businesses with less concern for monopolistic activity.
However, export control of AI is a rare area where the two administrations are close to agreement. President Biden directed tighter control on exporting AI technology at several points in his term, focusing on blocking China from accessing today’s next-gen processor chips.
The Trump administration, with its history of a contentious trade relationship with China, appears set to further tighten these controls. President Trump is expected to counter China’s AI-based military efforts—particularly its threats to Taiwan—by boosting investment in AI military technology in close cooperation with US AI vendors.