The White House, in a remarkable turn of events on Thursday, canceled a scheduled ceremony for President Trump to sign an executive order on artificial intelligence.
Invites to top tech CEOs — including Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook and Sam Altman — had gone out. Briefings were held for reporters and the tech industry.
Then the ceremony — scheduled for 3:30 pm — was called off a few hours before its start time.
Trump had a simple reason: He “didn’t like” all the details, arguing it would put American companies behind foreign competition.
“I didn’t like certain aspects of it, I postponed it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
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“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,” he said.
There had been internal disagreements among the Trump administration about the order, a source familiar said, including how strictly to regulate the industry, with the pro-AI economic side at odds with the cyber concerns of the security hawks.
The about-face comes days after Trump returned from Beijing following a whirlwind trip with tech giants, during which he spoke with Xi Jinping about the AI race. Trump has prioritized keeping the US the world leader in the cutting-edge technology.
The order would ask companies to submit new technology to the government for a “voluntary” review for national security and other issues as concerns grow about cybersecurity threats tied to AI.
There were disputes over some of the language in the order, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.
The order would ask for a 90-day review and consist of two sections: one about upgrading America’s own systems and the second about securing frontier model deployment, which would examine the hardware and security requirements for massive new AI systems, including those like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
And some of the invited CEOs – many of whom are based in California – were unable to clear their schedules in time to make it to the White House. Invites went out Tuesday night for the Thursday ceremony.
It’s unclear exactly how much force the order had. The technology review, handled by various government agencies within the Treasury Department and the White House, would be voluntary, and it’s unclear how security concerns would be handled.
Trump noted AI is “causing tremendous good, and it’s also bringing in a lot of jobs,” adding he was worried his order “could have been a blocker” and he didn’t want that to happen.
It’s unclear when the signing will be rescheduled.
Trump has been wary of regulating private businesses and has repealed many Biden administration orders in that sector.
“Deregulation” has been a theme of his second term. The same day the signing ceremony was canceled, Trump signed an executive order repealing a Biden-era regulation on refrigeration rules in order to bring down the price of groceries.
Innovation is Trump’s priority, Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday when he spoke to reporters in the White House briefing room.
“The president wants us to be pro-innovation. He wants us to win the AI race against all other countries in the world,” he said.
Vance added the administration was trying to “balance” the innovation with making “sure that the American people are as safe as possible.”
