President Signs Executive Order To Limit State Regulation Of Artificial Intelligence

On December 11, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order purporting to limit the ability of states to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The order's stated purpose is to ensure that American AI companies are "free to innovate without cumbersome regulation" and to "remove barriers to American AI leadership." The order cites the proliferation of AI legislative proposals in state legislatures as undermining that goal (although it bears note that few if any of these proposals have or are likely to become law).

The order specifically cites as problematic a recently enacted California state law, which it claims requires "complex and burdensome disclosure... based on the purely speculative suspicion that AI might 'pose significant catastrophic risk.'" It further references Colorado state law regarding algorithmic discrimination, claiming that that law "may even force AI models to embed DEI in their programming." The order goes on to state that the