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1. 100 Days, One Sweeping Executive Order
On 23 January 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14179, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The order wipes away a patchwork of Biden‑era directives, instructs every department to act decisively to retain U.S. AI leadership, and re‑establishes a cabinet‑level National AI Leadership Council housed at the White House.
Key mandates:
- Rescind any agency guidance that unnecessarily restricts AI R&D or deployment.
- Inventory all government‑owned data sets suitable for model training within 120 days.
- Publish an agency‑specific AI strategy focused on national security, economic growth, and American values.
2. The Governance Playbook — OMB M‑25‑21 & M‑25‑22
Two follow‑on Office of Management & Budget memoranda translate the EO into detailed marching orders:
|
Memo & date |
What it requires |
Deadline |
Why it matters |
|
M‑25‑21 “Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance & Public Trust” (3 Apr 2025) |
• Each agency must name a Chief AI Officer (CAIO) |
180 days |
Creates a single point of accountability and a public benchmark for AI maturity |
|
M‑25‑22 “Driving Efficient Acquisition of AI” (12 Apr 2025) |
• Standard contract clauses for model testing, kill‑switches & data portability |
Effective on issuance |
Bakes “trustworthy‑AI” terms into every new federal procurement |
A CAIO Council chaired by OMB now meets monthly to share playbooks and recommend cross‑agency pilots.
3. Trade & Industrial Policy — The Chip‑Export Reversal
In early May 2025 the Commerce Department revoked the pending “AI Diffusion Rule,” a Biden‑era regulation that would have required licences for exporting certain high‑end GPUs and closed‑weight foundation models. Semiconductor leaders — Nvidia, Intel, Broadcom — praised the move as oxygen for U.S. AI competitiveness.
Officials say a narrower, risk‑based replacement rule is in the works, aimed primarily at blocking illicit tech flows to China while easing sales to allies in the Gulf and Europe.
4. Standards & Safety — NIST Takes the Wheel
NIST has launched three initiatives aligned to the new EO:
- AI Safety Institute to stress‑test foundation models for red‑teaming, bias and catastrophic‑risk scenarios.
- RAG‑Benchmark Consortium evaluating retrieval‑augmented generation tools for government knowledge bases.
- Model‑Card Schema v2 drafted with industry to standardise provenance data for any model sold to federal agencies.
5. Funding Picture — A Mixed Message
The FY‑2026 “skinny budget” proposes the deepest non‑defense cuts in decades, but carves out protected lanes for AI, quantum, and high‑performance computing at DOE and NSF, even as overall science funding contracts. Critics warn that broader research reductions could starve the talent pipeline the administration hopes to tap.
6. Where Agencies Stand Today
- Defense: DoD’s Chief Digital & AI Office is piloting an “OSINT‑to‑Action” agent that summarises open‑source battlefield intel in under 15 minutes.
- Transportation: FRA is testing an AI‑based track inspection model to reduce manual surveys by 60 %.
- Commerce: PTO launched an AI Fast‑Track to shave five months off patents that cite at least one AI claim.
What to Watch Next
- Replacement export‑control rule (draft expected June).
- NIST AI Safety Institute public evaluation results (Q3 2025).
- Federal “AI Bill of Materials” pilot — will vendors have to disclose training data lineage?
The bottom line: Trump 2.0 is betting that lighter regulation, clear governance rails, and open export lanes will unleash a new surge of U.S.‑led AI innovation — but budget headwinds and geopolitical pushback could still slow the train.
Have questions or need a compliance roadmap? Email mlew@commtrex.com for a complimentary 30‑minute consultation.