Trump orders creation of litigation task force to challenge state AI laws
On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a single, nationwide regulatory framework governing artificial intelligence, at the expense of individual states’ ability to regulate the nascent technology. “To win, U.S. AI companies must be free to innovate without burdensome regulation,” the order states. “But excessive state regulation thwarts this imperative.”
As predicted after a draft order was leaked earlier this week, the document’s centerpiece is an “AI Litigation Working Group whose sole responsibility will be to challenge state AI laws inconsistent” with the president’s policy vision. US Attorney General Pam Bondi has 30 days to create the task force, which will meet regularly with White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
As outlined in the President’s July AI Action Plan, the administration will also limit access to federal funding for states with “onerous” AI laws. Specifically, the Commerce Secretary will target funding available through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, a $42.5 billion effort to expand access to high-speed internet in rural communities.
Advocacy groups were quick to criticize the president’s order. “This executive order is designed to dampen state-level action to provide oversight and accountability for developers and deployers of AI systems, while doing nothing to address the real and documented harm these systems create,” Alexandra Givens, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement provided to Engadget. “States that take steps to protect their residents from such harm should not be subject to threats of legal attack; nor should the administration punish rural Americans by threatening to cut off funding for broadband services that could connect them to AI in the first place. »
It is worth noting that President Trump’s previous attempts to restrict states’ ability to regulate AI as they see fit have proven unpopular across the political spectrum. As part of his One Big Beautiful Bill, the president attempted to impose a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation at the state level. That clause was ultimately removed from the bill in a decisive 99-1 Senate vote.
