US Presidential Executive Orders on AI

An executive order is not a statute. It directs the executive branch, and it can reach private companies only when it rests on authority Congress already granted. It also lasts only as long as a President keeps it in place. That explains how US AI policy has swung back and forth. EO 13859, 'Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,' was signed in February 2019 during President Trump's first term and launched the American AI Initiative. It told agencies to prioritize AI research funding, make federal data and computing more available to researchers, and train the workforce. It also directed OMB to write guidance on regulating AI and NIST to plan technical standards. EO 13960, signed in December 2020, set principles for trustworthy government use of AI and started agency use-case inventories. EO 14110, signed by President Biden on October 30, 2023, was far broader. It invoked the Defense Production Act to require developers of the most powerful dual-use foundation models to report safety test (red-team) results and training details to the Commerce Department. It asked NIST to develop evaluation guidance, and NIST created the US AI Safety Institute, later renamed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. It also pushed guidance on labeling synthetic content and told OMB to set governance rules for agencies, which became memo M-24-10. On January 20, 2025, President Trump revoked EO 14110. Days later EO 14179, 'Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,' ordered an AI Action Plan. OMB replaced its guidance in April 2025. America's AI Action Plan was released in July 2025 alongside orders on data center permitting, AI exports and 'unbiased' AI in federal procurement. A common misconception is that revoking EO 14110 wiped out all federal AI governance. Agency inventories, Chief AI Officers and NIST's work continued in revised forms.