Trump Signs Streamlined AI Oversight Executive Order Following Industry Pushback

President Donald Trump finalized an executive order on Tuesday aimed at establishing a governmental review process for advanced artificial intelligence models prior to their public launch. The directive requests that specific AI firms voluntarily provide their new systems to the government for assessment or testing 30 days before a public release.

This timeline represents a significant reduction from earlier proposals. An initial draft of the order had proposed a voluntary review period of up to 90 days in advance. However, executives within the AI sector advocated for a shorter timeframe, closer to two weeks. Consequently, Trump postponed the signing of the more stringent version, which had been scheduled for late May, following substantial resistance from the industry. This pushback included objections from David Sacks, the venture capitalist and former White House AI czar.

At the time of the delay, the President emphasized the importance of maintaining U.S. competitiveness. “I don’t want to do anything that gets in the way of the AI companies leading against China,” Trump stated.

The final text of the order, released Tuesday, explicitly limits government authority. It states, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models.”

Although Trump originally intended to sign the executive order alongside a group of leading Silicon Valley CEOs, the event was ultimately conducted in private with the revised version. Beyond the voluntary review mechanism, the order instructs the Department of Justice to prioritize the enforcement of crimes involving AI, such as unauthorized system access and AI-assisted hacking.

This measure follows a previous directive from last December, in which Trump signed an order mandating the creation of a unified national AI policy framework. That earlier initiative sought to establish a single “rulebook” to preempt individual state-level AI regulations.

Source: TechCrunch Generated at: 2026-06-02 16:23:08 UTC