While the Biden administration introduced government with artificial intelligence (AI), the Trump administration aspires for government by AI. The former encouraged agencies to explore AI use cases and generally experiment with how to integrate AI tools into services and systems, while adhering to a number of procedural safeguards. The latter retains some of those safeguards but establishes a default of using AI to streamline and improve government services. Two new policies issued by the Office of Management and Budget will usher in this era of government-by-AI. OMB Memo M-25-21 calls for accelerating federal use of AI. OMB Memo M-25-22 directs agencies to use an “efficient” acquisition process. The policies build on the administration’s Jan. 23 executive order, which centered “AI dominance” as the primary aim of President Trump’s AI strategy. Implementation of these policies may have a major influence on the public’s willingness to accept AI as a core part of government activity-—whether that influence is positive or negative depends on whether agencies adhere to the safeguards and transparency requirements outlined by the OMB memos while also leveraging AI to meaningfully improve government services and effectiveness. Current uses of AI by the administration—namely, by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team—may jeopardize this public trust, clashing with the aims of the OMB memos. DOGE has deployed AI systems with seemingly minimal oversight and in sensitive contexts. For example, Reuters recently reported that DOGE developed AI tools to monitor the communications of staffers within at least one federal agency to identify conversations that include critical opinions of the President and his agenda. Musk has even floated replacing government workers with AI. Effective government by AI—as articulated by the OMB memos—precludes such reckless, opaque employment of AI. As things stand, just 17 percent of the public expects that AI will have a positive effect on the US in the next two decades. Nearly 60 percent have concerns that the government will inadequately regulate AI, whereas just 21 percent think it will overreach and quash AI innovation. If the administration rushes to work AI into sensitive decision-making contexts without earning the public’s trust, then it may hinder future efforts to adopt AI into government processes. The unprecedented shift to government by AI represents a fundamental transformation of public administration that will not only redefine federal operations but also determine whether AI serves as a democratizing force or concentrates power further away from citizen oversight—making the implementation of these policies a critical battleground for the future of American governance.
New White House AI Policies Introduce Government by AI | Lawfare
