- Donald Trump signed a new executive order on his first day as president of the United States
- The order repeals a previous executive order that required extensive research on AI tools before their release.
- This is in line with his presidential campaign
The first day of Donald Trump’s presidency was marked by more than 200 executive orders. The returning US president has used his executive power to sign a number of drastic policy changes, including one regarding artificial intelligence (AI).
In 2023, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14110, titled “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” The goal of the directive was to establish a national framework to govern AI in the United States.
It requires developers of AI systems, posing risks to national security, economic stability, or public health and safety, to conduct rigorous security testing and share the results with the federal government before public deployment.
The problem and promise of AI
The aim was to ensure that the potential risks of new AI tools were analyzed, before these tools were provided to the general public.
Additionally, the order directs federal agencies to create guidelines for responsible use of AI, including measures to prevent algorithmic discrimination and protect civil rights. He also called for the development of standards to identify AI-generated content, aiming to address concerns over misinformation and deepfakes.
On January 20, the first day President Trump was in the Oval Office, he revoked this executive order, PK Press Club reports. This was in line with what Trump promised during his campaign, as the Republican Party said it “supports the development of AI anchored in free speech and human flourishing.”
Generative AI (GenAI) is a relatively new tool that can create new content, such as text, images, music or code, after receiving commands (or prompts) in the form of a natural human language. Opinion makers, academia, and the general public were both excited and frightened by this new technology.
On one hand, it’s exciting because it unleashes creativity, automates tasks, and enables revolutionary applications, but on the other, it’s scary because it can be misused in disinformation campaigns and lead to job cuts.
Via PK Press Club
