AI ‘Regulation’ in the Chokepoint State

(J. Benton Heath – Just Security) President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on artificial intelligence is being treated as a “shift” in the administration’s approach to tech regulation. It is welcomed as a cautious step toward responsible risk regulation, hailed as a qualified victory for tech critics, and framed as the outcome of “months of debate” within the administration over important matters of principle. But this story misses the important ways that the executive order marks a continuation of the Trump administration’s preferred mode of governing. Trumpian regulation is premised on broad executive discretion, bypassing ordinary rulemaking procedures and, as far as possible, judicial accountability. Where the coercive power of the federal government is insufficient, Trumpian regulation works by building strategic alliances with self-interested private sector elites. And it is premised on control over the circulation of goods, funds, and information. These all-too-common regulatory techniques have roots far deeper than the current presidency, but they are particular hallmarks of the second Trump administration’s approach to executive power. And they are all on display in the new AI order. Viewed in this way, the order is not a “pivot” for the Trump administration, but just the latest page in the same playbook. – AI ‘Regulation’ in the Chokepoint State