Trump Cancels AI Executive Order At Behest Of Billionaires

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If you somehow need further proof that President Donald Trump cares more about the needs of billionaires than working-class Americans, despite more and more legitimate safety concerns arising over artificial intelligence (AI), Trump canceled a planned executive order intended to give the federal government oversight of AI models before they’re introduced to the public. Why? Well, because his billionaire buddies asked him to, duh.

According to The Washington Post, Trump had several phone calls with tech leaders, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, at the behest of former AI and crypto czar David Sacks, before the planned signing ceremony. The executives expressed concerns that the order could hamper AI development and, in turn, hurt the economy (i.e., their bank accounts).

Trump told The New York Times that he “didn’t like certain aspects” of the executive order without going into detail about what those aspects were. “I think it gets in the way of—you know, we’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead.”

What’s interesting is that China isn’t that far behind America in the AI arms race, and has already implemented meaningful regulation of the technology. While we in the West are fearful of losing our jobs to AI, a court in China ruled that AI cannot be used to replace workers. In refusing to implement any kind of regulation or oversight, Trump is effectively allowing China to dictate the terms of AI usage on the global stage. Which is, in and of itself, an entirely different and equally troubling issue.

From The New York Times:

The executive order would have granted the federal government oversight of new A.I. models before they were publicly released. In its current form, the order would give the Office of the National Cyber Director, which sits within the White House and oversees cybersecurity coordination in the government, and other agencies two months to develop a process for evaluating new A.I. models, the people said.

The goal was for the government to identify any security vulnerabilities revealed by A.I. models and to patch problems in its systems to help protect banks, utilities and other sensitive industries from cyberattacks.

The White House had also proposed that the major A.I. companies voluntarily share their models from 14 to 90 days before a public release, the people said. The final process could also include the creation of a vault for security vulnerabilities, for companies and cybersecurity researchers to report vulnerabilities they find using A.I. models, some of these people said.

I’m among the many who have staunch reservations about AI. It makes generic-looking images, regularly lies, only grows through stealing art, has no reservations about helping plan a school shooting, and is a net negative on the environment. I lived an entire 33 years without AI. I managed to develop a skill set, my own style of implementing those skills, and I didn’t need to contribute to environmental racism to do so.

There’s a reason that Gen Z has been booing every commencement speaker who brings up AI during their graduation ceremonies this year. Nobody wants this, but Trump and the billionaire class will keep pushing it on us without any concern about how it impacts anything but their bottom line. Trump basically said as much when discussing why he decided not to sign the executive order.

“I really thought that could have been a blocker,” Trump said, noting the outsize role AI currently plays in the American economy. “And I want to make sure that it’s not.”

Federal officials said the order isn’t dead and will be revised, but come on now, y’all. We know the Trump administration is going to capitulate to the tech bros. For nearly the last two decades, the tech industry has effectively been allowed to operate with impunity in the United States.

Social media was introduced in the late aughts with little to no regulation or oversight, and we’ve seen how something as simple as a social network can be used to spread disinformation and fuel extremism. AI is a far more consequential technology, and it’s kind of insane that the federal government is legitimately saying, “Who cares about the consequences as long as it’s making money?”

At this point, I can only hope that this lack of oversight doesn’t blow up in our faces in horrific fashion, but I gotta tell ya, as an optimist, I’m feeling pretty pessimistic.

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Trump Cancels AI Executive Order At Behest Of Billionaires was originally published on newsone.com