TLDR: The Trump administration is reportedly preparing an executive order that would require AI companies seeking federal funding to ensure their chatbots and AI models are ‘politically neutral’ and unbiased. This move targets what the administration perceives as ‘woke’ or liberal biases in artificial intelligence, potentially impacting lucrative government contracts for major AI firms.
The Trump administration is reportedly poised to issue a significant executive order aimed at ensuring ‘political neutrality’ in artificial intelligence models, particularly for companies seeking federal contracts. This directive, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, targets what conservatives within the administration describe as ‘woke’ biases or left-leaning viewpoints embedded in AI chatbots and systems. The order would stipulate that AI firms receiving government funds must maintain strict political neutrality and unbiased outputs in their models.
This anticipated executive action follows a series of public complaints from conservative circles regarding perceived liberal biases in various AI tools. Instances cited include Google’s Gemini producing historically inaccurate images, such as a Black George Washington or racially diverse Nazis, and xAI’s Grok reportedly expressing controversial or far-right views. These incidents have fueled concerns within the administration about the ideological leanings of widely used AI models.
Major AI players, including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI, recently secured substantial contracts worth up to $200 million from the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) to accelerate the adoption of advanced AI capabilities for national security. The planned executive order could jeopardize these and future federal funds if companies do not align with the new neutrality requirements.
Sources indicate that AI Czar David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan, a senior White House policy adviser for AI, are leading the efforts behind this executive order. Sacks has previously voiced strong criticisms, stating in a 2023 podcast that ‘one of the concerns about ChatGPT early on was that it was programmed to be woke, and that it wasn’t giving people truthful answers about a lot of things.’ He added that ‘the censorship was being built into the answers.’ While there is reported internal pushback from some advisors, the order is expected to be announced soon, alongside other measures designed to bolster U.S. competitiveness in the global AI race, including promoting American chip exports and accelerating data center permitting.
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This initiative aligns with the Trump administration’s broader agenda to curtail Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, which it has labeled as ‘wasteful’ and ‘discriminatory.’ The move is expected to have a widespread impact on the tech industry, compelling companies to carefully consider the political implications of their AI model development and training data, as the definition of ‘neutrality’ becomes a critical factor in securing lucrative government partnerships.
