President Trump today announced on social media that he will be signing an executive order that will preempt state AI rules, replacing it with one federal regulation.
“There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI. We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS,” he wrote on Truth Social. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”
But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said an executive order can’t preempt state legislation. Congress could do it through legislation, he said on an X post. “The problem is that Congress hasn’t proposed any coherent regulatory scheme but instead just wanted to block states from doing anything for 10 years, which would be an AI amnesty.”
Leading AI companies have been complaining before Congress that they are hamstrung by various state-level AI regulations. The U.S. has put forth AI executive orders, policy guidance and sector rules, but nothing comprehensive unlike the EU’s AI Act. Many states have stepped into the void, forming a patchwork quilt of regulations.