US President Donald Trump has called off the signing of an executive order that would have added safety guardrails to new artificial intelligence models, citing concerns that the United States could lose its AI dominance to China.
Postponement Amid Pressure
The president was due to sign the executive order at a ceremony on Thursday, but postponed the plans due to reported pressure from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and xAI founder Elon Musk.
"I think it gets in the way of, you know, we're leading China, we're leading everybody, and I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office regarding the postponement. Meta and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Details of the Proposed Order
The order would have created a voluntary framework for AI developers to engage with the US government before the public release of advanced AI models, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump did not specify which parts of the executive order he objected to. Tech industry advocates fear that the order's provisions could hurt profits if they slow the rollout of new models or prompt companies to change how those models perform to address security concerns.
The president also had planned to direct the US government to use advanced models to improve cybersecurity defenses of government systems, along with networks owned by sectors vital to the nation's economy, such as banks and hospitals, according to another source.
Growing Concerns Over AI Risks
Concerns are growing across the US government and in the private sector about the cybersecurity risks posed by powerful new AI systems, including Anthropic's Mythos. Anthropic has warned that Mythos could supercharge complex cyber attacks, although cybersecurity experts told Reuters that fears of unfettered hacking are overstated.
Since regaining power in January 2025, Trump has taken a softer stance towards Big Tech firms than the administration of his predecessor, President Joe Biden. However, several prominent Trump supporters are calling for more safety guardrails around the technology.
Calls for Safety Measures
Recent reports suggest Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are both calling for more safety measures for new AI models. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has also written an open letter to Trump asking him to implement mandatory testing of frontier models, writing: "We cannot trust these companies to police themselves."
Additional reporting from agencies.
