President Trump signed several Executive Orders last January, including one called “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The new EO comes three months after President Biden signed his own Executive Order on AI which called for establishing new safety regulations for the industry. So what changes – especially for startups – with the White House’s latest guidance?
Trump’s order outlines a straightforward AI policy: “It is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” It also calls for creating an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan within 180 days of the Executive Order’s publication. While the new EO calls for a forward-looking plan to support AI innovation, it also implements a revocation of President Biden’s AI Executive Order (EO 14110).
The new EO instructs White House officials to “identify any actions taken pursuant to Executive Order 14110 that are or may be inconsistent with, or present obstacles to, the policy set forth in section 2 of this order.” Trump’s order will suspend any elements of Biden’s order that the new administration thinks could hamper or slow AI innovation in the United States.
Getting Ahead of the AI Action Plan
The Biden administration called for the creation of new safety rules for AI startups. By rescinding that order, Trump has signaled that he’s less likely to implement new AI safety and compliance measures, and that any new compliance regulations for startups won’t be announced until summer 2025 at the earliest. Companies have more time than expected to consider which compliance standards would benefit their business and secure them before the AI Action Plan is even announced.
It’s worth noting that the new administration may create a natural fork between what the government requires from its vendors and what enterprises ask for during contract discussions. Companies should optimize for customers with the most contractual requirements – likely enterprises. Even if some larger companies loosen their contractual requirements when the AI Action Plan is published, others will assess that fewer requirements don’t offer them as much protection from third-party risk as they’d like. These companies will maintain their current contractual requirements no matter what new guidance is announced at the federal level.
Prioritizing the Private Sector
Startups are in an AI guidance limbo until summer 2025. Consider, though: Trump’s executive order and its AI Action Plan are most likely to impact the government’s contractual requirements, not what the private sector demands. Startups hoping to sell AI tools to government agencies will have to wait and see what the AI action plan entails. However, startups focused on the private sector don’t need to wait to make a decision.
Frameworks like the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) will offer AI companies a way to mitigate risk for years to come, particularly among private sector clients. NIST even launched its updated CSF 2.0 in late 2023 to reflect the number of small and medium-sized businesses (read: startups) hoping to use the framework to demonstrate their trustworthiness.
Even if the Trump administration decides not to require any new rules or compliance frameworks for AI startups, there’s still plenty they can do to boost their chances of winning enterprise deals. Large companies are becoming more and more risk averse every day and support new tools and processes that help them mitigate third-party risk. To point, former Google chief Eric Schmidt announced a $10 million investment to fund research into AI safety problems at the AI Action Summit in Paris. Achieving a compliance certification like NIST CSF 2.0 will only increase your odds of closing a large customer quickly and with fewer hurdles. Even if CSF 3.0 doesn’t emerge for several more years.
