Trump signs order preventing states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence rules

US President Donald Trump has signed executive order Designed to prevent states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence (AI) regulations.

“We want to have a central source of approval,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

White House artificial intelligence adviser David Sachs said this would give the Trump administration tools to roll back the most “onerous” state rules. He added that the government would not oppose AI regulations around child safety.

The move marks a victory for tech giants, who have called for U.S.-wide legislation on artificial intelligence as it could have significant implications for the country’s goal of leading the fast-growing industry.

Artificial intelligence company bosses believe state-level regulations could slow innovation and hamper the U.S. race with China for dominance in the industry, where U.S. companies invest billions in the technology.

The BBC has contacted artificial intelligence companies OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic commented.

But the announcement was met with opposition.

California, home to many of the world’s largest tech companies, has enacted its own artificial intelligence regulations.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, an outspoken critic of Trump, issued a strongly worded statement about the executive order, accusing him of corruption.

“Today, President Trump continued his path from the White House, seeking to advance the interests of himself and his colleagues with a new executive order in an attempt to preempt state laws that protect Americans from unregulated artificial intelligence technology.”

Earlier this year, Newsom signed a bill requiring the largest AI developers to develop plans to limit the risks posed by their AI models.

States such as Colorado and New York have also passed laws regulating the development of the technology.

Newsom said the law sets standards that U.S. lawmakers can follow.

Other critics of Trump’s executive orders argue that state laws are necessary in the absence of meaningful guardrails at the federal level.

“Removing states from enacting their own AI protections undermines states’ fundamental rights to build adequate guardrails to protect their residents,” Julie Self of the advocacy group Mothers Against Media Addiction said in a statement.

But Michael Goodyear, an associate professor at New York Law School, said letting states set their own laws has created a patchwork of rules that could be harmful to the U.S. AI industry.

“It’s better to have one federal law than a bunch of conflicting state laws. But that assumes we’re going to have a good federal law,” he told the BBC.

Tech lobby group NetChoice celebrated the executive order on Thursday.

“We look forward to working with the White House and Congress to develop national standards and a clear rulebook for innovators,” said its policy director Patrick Hedger.