The American president Donald Trump yesterday abruptly canceled the signing of an executive order that would have given powers to his Government to be able to analyze and veto models of artificial intelligence before its launch.
Everything was planned. However, a few hours before the event, the White House announced that it would not be produced. “I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” Trump told reporters without specifying what had led him to postpone the signing. “I think this hinders our leadership in China. “We lead everyone, and I don’t want to do anything to stop that.”
The move would have reversed the Trump administration’s hands-off policy on AI. And it would have activated a voluntary supervision system for federal agencies to evaluate the advanced models of this technology before opening to the general public. A priori, that would allow Washington impose vetoes or censor the products of leading companies such as OpenAI, Google o Anthropic.
I think this hinders our leadership in China. We lead everyone, and I don’t want to do anything to stop it.
Industry pressure
That sudden postponement would have been influenced by the millionaire David Sacksprolific investor of Silicon Valley who advised the Trump administration on IA and who currently serves as president of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology of USA. “This morning he called the president without anyone knowing, not even his own staff, and ruined everything,” internal sources have explained to Politico.
Sacks would have convinced Trump that the measure could slow down the innovation and hurt the American technology industry at a time of full competition with China for leadership in the AI market.
In addition, the president would have expressed his displeasure at the absence of many of the sector’s executive directors, reports The New York Times. The White House invited the leaders of OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta y Microsoft with just 24 hours notice, which would have forced some of those companies to send other executives to sign an executive order that could now be a dead letter.
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