Trump plans to unleash artificial intelligence by repealing restrictions

“We will revoke Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order, which hinders AI innovation and imposes radical left-wing ideas on the development of this technology.”

Donald Trump will now become the next President of the United States, blowing the future of AI regulation in this country wide open.

That’s because Trump has promised to repeal what already exists AI regulations implemented by outgoing President Joe Bidenwhich were demonstrably light to begin with. If Trump makes good on his promise, uncontrolled AI development could be the order of the day.

“We will revoke Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order, which hinders AI innovation and imposes radical left-wing ideas on the development of this technology,” Trump said. listed on his campaign platform. “Instead, Republicans support the development of AI that is rooted in free speech and human flourishing.”

Through an executive order, the Biden administration passed its existing AI regulations in October 2023, using a 1950 national defense law as justification, meaning they were already on weak legal footing in the eyes of his opponents. However, that’s not really relevant now, as Trump only needs to issue a counter-order to negate it.

The tech-bro-slash-accelerationist and conservative criticism of the Biden AI order is mainly focused on two of its provisions, namely Wired‘s analysis.

One imposes new requirements on the way tech companies test their AI models and conduct risk assessments, a practice known as “red-teaming.” Under the Biden provision, companies developing large AI models are required to share all red team test results with the federal government for review, which will be assessed on things like how vulnerable the AIs are to hacking. Critics see this process as needlessly delaying the development of AI, forcing companies to reveal their trade secrets.

The other notable provision requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish guidelines to ensure, among other things, that AI models are free from biases that could discriminate against certain groups based on factors such as race or gender. That’s the part that Trump and his ilk see as imposing “radical left-wing ideas.”

It’s impossible to separate the conversation from Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and X, formerly Twitter. He has criticized major AI models such as ChatGPT for being “woke up”, and launched his own AI startup and chatbot, an endeavor couched in the techno-optimistic rhetoric of “understanding the universe”. Musk has sued OpenAI earlier this year, ostensibly for the “benefit of humanity,” as the now Microsoft-backed startup deviated from its original nonprofit goals.

They indicate an ulterior motive. Like one major donor to the Trump campaign, which he is for earned a place in the new president’s inner circleMusk stands to benefit greatly from Trump’s relaxed regulations, which could allow his AI ventures to gain ground on his major technology competitors who have had a lead for years.

More broadly, it is likely that Trump will oversee further deregulation of the tech industry in general especially cryptocurrencythat has become his latest dubious venture after he turned over from a vocal critic to a big booster.

However, it is unclear what all this means for the large technology monopolies in particular. Some of the Federal Trade Commission’s largest antitrust cases against companies like Google and Amazon were initiated during Trump’s first term and continued during Biden’s.

Still, Trump has sounded more skeptical of late about the Biden-led Justice Department’s efforts to break Google’s massive search engine monopoly. Reuters noted. His running mate and future Vice President JD Vance is muddying the water on the plate as a supporter of the Biden FTC’s antitrust enforcement against big tech.

What Trump plans to replace Biden’s AI executive order remains unclear. The platform does not specify a detailed policy stance, beyond looser regulations and culture war signifiers.

But in all likelihood, expect the new administration to pursue a laissez-faire era of AI development — which, for a technology whose proponents have continually emphasized, will soon be smart enough to rival humans and could potentially destroy society as we know itis more than a little concerning. Granted, these may be industry exaggerations, but there are still plenty of everyday AI consequences to worry about, such as widespread destruction of jobs And greedy power consumptionthat could be swept under the carpet.

More about AI: Big Tech is facing a major problem with its AI plans