TL; DR
AI executives who funded Trump’s deregulation push now want a formal framework after chaotic export controls and model restrictions.
The AI industry, which donated heavily to elect Donald Trump on promises to leave the technology alone, is now demanding formal regulation. This was reported by Politico on Friday. Executives at frontier AI companies have said they see the administration’s particular approach to model control as more damaging than anything the Biden administration has proposed.
The change was rapid. Trump entered his second term on the back of a wave of Silicon Valley donations from billionaires who warned that Biden’s AI-related security policies would crush American innovation. He spent his first year aimed at stopping states from regulating technology and signed a voluntary executive order on June 2 asking companies to submit models for a 30-day review before release.
However, events overcame the voluntary framework almost immediately. The White House imposed export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models on June 12. After Amazon’s CEO raised security concerns with the Treasury secretary. This week, the administration pressed to limit the launch of OpenAI its latest model Sol, to about 20 government-approved partnersfor the first time, a US company launched a border model under a government-run access list.
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One senior AI executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to Politico, called the result “a de facto European-style licensing regime.Paul Lekas, global head of public policy at the Software and Information Industry Association, which represents leading AI companies, saida real need for a formal process” and that the industry wants to avoid releases based on “ad hoc process and one time license.“
Industry representatives also told Politico that they were afraid to push the White House for clarification. “It’s like they’re walking on a little eggshell,said an AI policy consultant who works with major frontier labs. Companies fear that overly aggressive lobbying could invite export controls or other regulatory retaliation.
Saif Khan, who served as senior adviser for critical and emerging technologies at the Commerce Department under Biden, called Trump’s approach an overreaction born of previous indifference. “Because the risks were not taken into account, no preparatory work was done, experts were not hired.This is how Khan described the result to Politicoopaque, almost vibes based.“
Khan said the administration’s actions “an almost complete moratorium on new releases“it will”begin to have a significant impact on the results of companies,The Biden administration’s own final rule would have imposed export controls on chips and AI model weights for certain countries, but never attempted to block domestic releases.
Dean Ball is a former Trump administration official who authored the White House AI Action Plan Joins OpenAI as head of strategic futures on July 6acknowledged the tension. He said that the concern of the administration “100 percent legal“but he”they are likely overreacting to these legitimate concerns.Ball added that he’s glad the White House has come to take AI security seriously, even if there are flaws in the implementation.
On Friday, the administration partially lifted the Anthropic export ban, allowing Mythos 5 to be shared with more than 100 approved companies. But Fable 5 remains blocked for reasons the government has not explained. One OpenAI executive told Politico that the industry expects the administration to finalize its June 2 order soon, replacing the existing pressure with the voluntary inspection framework it originally outlined.
Lekas said the tech industry is boomingcoordinated boost for the actual framework” about advanced AI rules and wants Washington to codify them, either through an executive order or legislation.He warned that if AI companies fail to agree to a standardized approach to security, they will face the same unpredictable treatment.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston defended the president’s record, citing an executive order aimed at fast-tracking permits for AI infrastructure and ending state-level regulation. “President Trump has made his goal clear and repeated: to ensure America’s continued dominance in artificial intelligence,Huston said.
