Trump Orders Development of AI Action Plan After Revoking Biden’s Directive

David Sacks, U.S. President Donald Trump's "AI and Crypto Czar", speaks with President Trump during the signing of a series of executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 23, 2025. Trump signed a range of executive orders pertaining to issues including crypto currency, Artificial Intelligence, and clemency for anti-abortion activists. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday calling for the creation of a new artificial intelligence (AI) action plan after revoking the Biden administration’s 2023 directive on the technology.

Trump’s order directed the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST), special advisor for AI and crypto, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APSNA) to develop the plan within 180 days.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Sacks, Trump’s pick as special advisor for AI and crypto, joined the president for the signing of the order.

The order stated that the action plan would focus on developing AI systems that are “free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas” while strengthening U.S. global dominance in AI development.

The order also called for a review of “all policies, directives, regulations, orders, and other actions” resulting from the executive order signed by former President Joe Biden in October 2023—which Trump revoked after taking office on Monday.

Any actions that are found to be inconsistent with Trump’s new policies—which aim to enhance America’s leadership in AI to promote “human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security”—must be suspended in accordance with the applicable law, according to the order.

Under Biden’s executive order, companies developing or planning to develop “dual-use foundation models” must first provide the federal government with records of training and production of the models, including physical and cybersecurity measures taken to protect consumers from any safety risks.

Trump stated that his predecessor’s order had caused “barriers to American AI innovation.”

A fact sheet issued by the Trump administration on Thursday said that Biden’s order imposed “unnecessarily burdensome requirements” on AI developers, which would “stifle private sector innovation and threaten American technological leadership.”

Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), a non-profit organization that advocates policies on emerging technologies, said that agencies had already “frozen work” on AI policies after Trump repealed Biden’s executive order earlier this week.

“President Trump has made it clear from day one that his top priority on AI is out-innovating the rest of the world,” ARI executive director Eric Gastfriend said in a statement.

“Today’s executive order is a placeholder until the Administration has a chance to develop a full strategy for executing that vision,” Gastfriend added.

Biden issued an executive order last week directing the Defense Department and Energy Department to lease federal sites to the private sector for building large-scale AI data centers. Trump has not issued any repeal of this order.

The former administration also proposed to limit the export of advanced computer chips used in AI development to foreign adversaries, including Russia and China, as it aimed to ensure that “the world’s AI runs on American rails.”