Wokeness was apparently keeping AI down.
Guardrails Gone
President Donald Trump’s second administration is all-in on AI — just not the woke kind.
Amid his weeklong flurry of executive orders, the real estate mogul-turned-president suggested in his latest that wokeness is, essentially, keeping AI down.
“To maintain this leadership, we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” the new AI order reads. “With the right Government policies, we can solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.”
Titled “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” this new order follows after Trump revoked the Biden Administration’s 2023 AI safety order, which was intended to make sure these systems don’t harm national security or humanity itself.
Revoking that order as one of his first acts as president sent a clear signal that Trump is following along with the GOP’s 2024 party platform that supported “AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing,” as opposed to the prior administration’s insistence on countering “irresponsible use [that] could exacerbate societal harms such as fraud, discrimination, bias, and disinformation.”
Now we’re getting a taste of what that looks like in practice: Trump’s sweeping action against anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that’s already started a purge within the government will be a key component of his AI policy, too.
Go For Woke
This order’s mentions of ideology in AI also seem like they could have been inspired by Trump advisor Elon Musk, whose own “anti-woke” chatbot was built under a similar directive.
Anyone who’s used Musk’s “Grok” chatbot knows, of course, that it’s failed spectacularly at its “anti-woke” aims — so much so that it actually appeared to endorse Trump’s rival in the election, Kamala Harris.
Were things going well between the billionaire pair, it seems highly plausible that Musk would take credit for pushing his anti-woke AI agenda onto the president. Given that he just ticked off a bunch of his fellow flunkies for criticizing Trump’s $500 billion AI investment deal, however, he’s doing no such thing.
Hilariously, Trump dismissed his advisor’s trash-talking by noting that Musk “hates one of the people in the deal” — a snide reference to Musk’s antipathy toward OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who started that company with the South African-born businessman nine years ago before the two had a severe falling out.
While there’s no telling who — or what — is actually writing these rapidly-released executive orders, Trump’s devil-may-care attitude about Musk’s criticisms could be why he’s chosen to include language that seems inspired by the advisor’s own pet projects — or maybe they just all hate “woke.”
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