President Trump’s move to dismantle AI safety measures could have global impact

Author ADM+S Centre
Date 28 January 2025

On 20 January 2025 U.S. President Donald Trump revoked a 2023 executive order aimed at regulating artificial intelligence (AI), prioritising innovation over regulation of the rapidly advancing technology.

The executive order previously signed by former President Joe Biden, required AI companies to submit safety testing data to federal authorities, to establish safety standards around AI development.

ADM+S Affiliate and Director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne Prof Jeannie Paterson joined ABC radio last week to discuss some of the implications of this decision.

“It’s definitely a statement that the guardrails have come off for the development on AI,” she explains.

“The Executive order said that anybody who was releasing AI to be used with government had to put in place safeguards to prevent bias, to protect privacy, to reduce error, and to keep it cyber secure.

Those requirements aren’t there anymore so it’s hard to say what sort of safety measures will be reduced.”

Trump’s decision to revoke the order comes amid an escalating global race for AI supremacy and coincides with a decision to invest $800 billion to speed up its development.

It marks a significant shift in the US government’s approach to AI oversight, and contracts sharply with the approach of other nations.

Prof Paterson explains, “Australia is quite a small player here. We’ve made some steps, we’ve got some AI safety standards of our own in place that are very aligned with what’s happening in Europe, Canada, and indeed Singapore.

What I’d expect to see is Australia continue down that path, and perhaps make some allegiances with those countries, so we’ve got that alliance of other countries also making those demands.”

She concludes, “It will be interesting to see how the competitive pressures go for those big tech companies that still want to sell to other jurisdictions.”

Listen on ABC.

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