President Trump Signs an Executive Order Granting Federal Access to AI Models Before They Are Released

IBL News | New York

President Donald Trump signed a landmark executive order on Tuesday that lays the foundation for federal testing of the most powerful AI systems.

It asks technology companies to voluntarily give the government oversight of new models up to 30 days before releasing them to the public.

The order, a shift for an administration that had promoted a hands-off approach to AI, follows months of debate in the Trump administration over how to handle AI and its effects on cybersecurity and national security. It is the Trump administration’s biggest step toward regulating artificial intelligence.

The order, signed in private, directs federal agencies — including the Pentagon, Treasury, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — to shore up the nation’s cybersecurity defenses for critical infrastructure, and charts out a mechanism for the federal government to test and vet the most powerful AI systems for safety issues before they are deployed.

The testing would rely on voluntary collaboration from America’s leading AI companies, like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.

The order explicitly bars the government from imposing a mandatory licensing or pre-clearance requirement for new AI models, making the government’s move a request rather than a rule.

The order also directs the Attorney General to prioritize the prosecution of crimes involving AI, with a particular focus on cyber crimes. It also asks prosecutors to focus on individuals using AI agents, or autonomous AI systems, to “unlawfully access data or information that is subsequently used for a criminal or unlawful purpose.”

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president; Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer; Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, and other executives separately praised the order as “an important step” that would balance A.I. safety and innovation.

The executive order has been in development for months. In April, AI company Anthropic’s new Mythos Preview model sent shockwaves through Washington with its superhuman ability to find critical and severe vulnerabilities in the world’s most widely used operating systems. In a March Quinnipiac University poll of American adults, 55 percent said they viewed AI as a force for harm rather than good.

In May, MAGA allies, including Stephen K. Bannon, Amy Kremer, and three dozen pastors, signed a letter urging the president to adopt a mandatory vetting process for AI models. They warned that the systems could harm cybersecurity, and that tech companies could not be trusted “to police themselves.”