Trump’s Draft Executive Order Targets States Enacting AI Transparency Laws
President Donald Trump is mulling an executive order that would block state laws requiring AI companies to publish transparency reports and disclose how they train models.
The president has said he wants to prevent a “patchwork” of state laws and is pushing for a centralized federal approach to governing the technology. Drafts circulating among federal agencies outline a plan to challenge state laws through litigation, restrict certain federal funds, and accelerate the development of a national AI framework.
According to Wired, which viewed the draft, the order would instruct Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an “AI Litigation Task Force” to contest state AI statutes viewed as conflicting with federal authority, including those alleged to infringe on the First Amendment or interstate commerce. The document asserts that “State legislatures have introduced over 1,000 AI bills that threaten to undermine that innovative culture,” and warns that “Our national security demands that we win this race.”
The draft order identifies recently enacted laws in states such as California and Colorado that require companies to publish transparency reports and reveal how models are trained. The latter point is particularly pertinent to photographers: when AI models first began releasing, some firms, including Google and Stability AI, revealed their training data leading to backlash and lawsuits from creatives who found their work in the data set and feel it is illegally being used without permission or compensation.
Photographer Jingna Zhang launched a lawsuit against Google along with three other artists who accuse the search giant of using their copyrighted work in the training of its AI image generator model Imagen. While Getty Images remains engaged in a legal battle against Stability AI, the company that made Stable Diffusion. However, the photo agency recently suffered a setback in a British court.
Trump’s order states that “American AI companies must be free to innovate without cumbersome regulation.” In another passage, it argues: “My Administration will act to ensure that there is a minimally burdensome national standard — not 50 discordant State ones.”
The White House has not officially confirmed the order. “Until officially announced by the WH, discussion about potential executive orders is speculation,” an official tells multiple outlets.
Trump has increasingly aligned with technology companies and advisers who favor limited regulation, including those urging federal preemption of state laws. He reiterated this view in a recent Truth Social post, stating that “overregulation by the states” threatens investment and competitiveness and asserting, “We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race.”
Civil liberties advocates have warned that the draft order could undermine public confidence in AI oversight. Cody Venzke of the ACLU tells Wired that “If the president wants to win the AI race, the American people need to know that AI is safe and trustworthy” and adds the proposal “only undermines that trust.”
Even if signed, the executive order would have limits. The administration cannot itself preempt state legislation; that authority rests with Congress. But the directive could spur legal challenges, influence agency rulemaking, and increase pressure on lawmakers as debates over AI regulation continue.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
