President Donald Trump abruptly postponed a planned executive order on artificial intelligence that would have mandated government safety reviews of new AI models before their release. The reversal came just hours before the order was to be signed on Thursday, following private phone calls from tech billionaires including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and former White House AI czar David Sacks, according to multiple news reports.
Trump cited the need to maintain US dominance over China as his reason for backing down. “I didn’t like certain aspects of it, I postponed it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re leading China, we’re leaving everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s gonna get in the way of that lead.”
The decision marks a victory for the tech industry, which has spent millions lobbying against AI regulation. White House discussions on the order began after Anthropic announced its latest model, Claude Mythos, last month, but withheld it due to safety concerns, describing its ability to find vulnerabilities in computer code as a “reckoning” for cybersecurity. The model sparked concern among governments from the UK to India to China over potential threats to financial systems and critical infrastructure.
Though the White House had appeared to shift towards considering safety restraints, Trump’s move signals a return to a hands-off approach. The tech industry retains its ability to pursue rapid AI advancement with minimal oversight, and Silicon Valley leaders have demonstrated their power to kill regulatory attempts early. The administration has previously blocked state-level AI regulation and embraced industry figures, appointing Musk and Sacks to government roles while publicly backing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
