Trump Wants to Shield His Big Tech Donors From State AI Laws
A draft order reviewed by Zeteo shows Trump wants to block state laws protecting people from “catastrophic risks” from AI and “algorithmic discrimination.”
Donald Trump’s administration has prepared a draft executive order that would shield his donors from state laws seeking to protect their residents from “algorithmic discrimination” and “catastrophic risk” posed by advanced artificial-intelligence models.
Amid a cascade of headlines about AI driving a financial bubble, job cuts, higher energy prices, suicides, and an increase in laziness – and rising concerns about how AI data centers affect local communities – Trump is planning a gift for the industry.
A draft of the executive order, obtained by Zeteo, criticizes a new California law that seeks to protect people from “catastrophic risks” posed by AI developers – i.e. the prospect of irresponsibly designed AI products leading to mass deaths or financial injuries. The draft order, which has not been finalized, characterizes the California law as “complex and burdensome,” and “purely speculative.” It also claims Colorado’s law banning algorithmic discrimination “may even force AI models to embed DEI in their programming.”
Major Trump donors, including tech giants Google and Meta, have reportedly lobbied his administration to block state AI laws. Those companies and other Trump donors, including Amazon and Microsoft, have disclosed lobbying on some or all of the state AI laws that Trump is now preparing to target.