Fact Sheet: Eliminating Barriers for Federal Artificial Intelligence Use and Procurement

Fact Sheets

TLDR

This “fact” sheet is for an executive memorandum that promotes deregulation and accelerated AI adoption while dismantling previous safeguards against discrimination. It removes bias testing requirements, weakens security protocols, creates regulatory fragmentation across states, reduces accountability measures, neglects workforce development, and creates data privacy loopholes. While highlighting successes like VA’s lung cancer AI and NASA’s Mars rover navigation, the policy prioritizes deployment speed over public protections and civil rights safeguards.

The Trump administration’s AI policy “fact sheet” promotes deregulation and accelerated adoption but overlooks critical risks and systemic flaws in its approach. Here’s a breakdown of key issues:

  1. Erosion of Safeguards Against Discrimination
  • Biden-era protections dismantled: The 2023 executive order required bias testing for AI in hiring, lending, and law enforcement. Trump’s removal of these mandates allows unchecked algorithmic discrimination, particularly impacting marginalized communities.
  • Civil rights sidelined: While the fact sheet mentions “civil liberties,” it eliminates equity-focused AI governance structures from the Biden era, relying instead on existing statutes like Title VII that lack AI-specific enforcement mechanisms.
  1. Security Through Obscurity
  • National security contradictions: Despite emphasizing AI’s national security role, the policy:
    • Rescinds mandatory cybersecurity protocols for critical infrastructure AI systems
    • Eliminates interagency threat assessment requirements for AI-enabled biological weapons development
    • Fails to address vulnerabilities in military AI supply chains
  1. Regulatory Fragmentation
  • 50-state problem: By rejecting federal AI standards, the administration enables a patchwork of conflicting state regulations that actually increase compliance costs for businesses - the opposite of claimed efficiency gains.
  • Procurement paradox: While advocating “American AI,” the policy removes vendor transparency requirements, making it easier for foreign-owned companies to supply critical government systems through domestic subsidiaries.
  1. Accountability Gaps
  • Chief AI Officer role neutered: Transforming these positions from oversight roles to “innovation advocates” creates inherent conflicts of interest, particularly in agencies like DOJ where AI tools directly impact civil liberties.
  • Weakened impact assessments: The single “high-impact AI” category fails to distinguish between:
    • Life-critical systems (e.g., VA diagnostics)
    • Lower-stakes applications This one-size-fits-all approach risks both over-regulation of benign uses and under-regulation of dangerous ones.
  1. Workforce and Innovation Myths
  • Talent pipeline neglect: The Biden order allocated $500M for AI workforce development and visa reforms. Trump’s replacement lacks comparable investments, relying on deregulation to magically produce skilled workers.
  • Open source risks: By prioritizing “American AI leadership,” the policy discourages collaboration with international research institutions, potentially slowing breakthrough innovations.
  1. Selective Success Stories While the VA’s lung cancer AI and NASA’s Mars rover navigation are commendable, these represent:
  • Narrow applications: Both are closed-loop systems with limited societal impact compared to AI uses in policing, benefits administration, or hiring
  • Pre-existing programs: These initiatives began under previous administrations, undermining claims of novel policy success
  1. Data Privacy Loopholes The fact sheet’s “strong privacy protections” rhetoric contradicts:
  • Elimination of data minimization requirements from Biden’s order
  • New exemptions allowing agencies to share citizen data with AI vendors without disclosure
  • No provisions addressing law enforcement’s use of facial recognition or predictive policing tools

This policy framework substitutes meaningful governance with deregulatory zeal, prioritizing corporate AI deployment speed over public safeguards. While some efficiency gains may materialize, they risk coming at the expense of civil rights, security preparedness, and long-term competitiveness in ethical AI development.

SUPPORTING AND EMBRACING AMERICAN INNOVATION: Under President
Trump’s leadership, America is well-positioned to maintain its global dominance in artificial
intelligence (AI) innovation. Today, the White House Office of Management and Budget, in
coordination with the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, issued two revised policies to facilitate responsible AI adoption to improve public services. These policies fundamentally shift perspectives and direction from the prior Administration, focusing now on utilizing emerging technologies to modernize the Federal Government.

  • The Executive Branch is shifting to a forward-leaning, pro-innovation and pro competition mindset rather than pursuing the risk-averse approach of the previous
    administration.
  • The Federal Government will no longer impose unnecessary bureaucratic restrictions on the use of innovative American AI in the Executive Branch.
  • By embracing AI adoption, agencies will be more agile, cost-effective, and efficient.
  • This shift will deliver improvements to the lives of the American public while enhancing
    America’s global dominance in AI innovation.

PROMOTING RAPID AND RESPONSIBLE AI ADOPTION: M-25-21 gives agencies the
tools necessary to embrace AI innovation, while maintaining strong protections for Americans’ privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.

  • Agencies will empower AI leaders to remove barriers to AI innovation.
    • Agency Chief AI Officer roles are redefined to serve as change agents and AI advocates, rather than overseeing layers of bureaucracy.
    • Chief AI Officers are tasked with promoting agency-wide AI innovation and adoption for lower risk AI, mitigating risks for higher-impact AI, and advising on agency AI investments and spending.
  • Agencies will produce an AI adoption maturity assessment to better track progress and
    needs.
  • Policies introduce a single “high-impact AI” category to track AI use cases that require
    heightened due diligence because of potential impacts on the rights or safety of the
    American people.
  • Accountability for AI will mirror the existing process for using government IT, instead of
    creating new layers of approvals.
  • Use of American AI will be maximized when seeking new AI solutions.

DRIVING EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT AI ACQUISITION: M-25-22 provides agencies
with concise, effective guidance on how to acquire best-in-class AI quickly, competitively, and responsibly.

  • Agencies must support a competitive American AI marketplace, maximizing the use of American AI systems and services in support of American AI leadership, human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.
  • This policy recognizes the importance of competition, communicating clear and specific requirements that avoid vendor lock-in.
  • The new approach removes burdensome agency reporting requirements and optimizes the acquisition process, while continuing to protect privacy and ensure lawful use of
    government data.
  • Agencies will use performance-based techniques to best harness the rapidly developing AI marketplace and create an online shared repository of resources and tools to assist with AI procurement.

AI WORKING FOR AMERICANS: Federal agencies are maximizing the benefits of AI to
promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security. Illustrative
examples include the following:

  • The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) optimizes patient care through AI tools that help identify and standardize Veterans’ care.
    • The VA uses AI to support the identification and analysis of pulmonary nodules
      during lung cancer screening exams. The AI functionality improves detection of these nodules, assisting clinicians with life-saving diagnoses.
  • The Department of Justice (DOJ) improves public safety by leveraging AI to protect the
    American public.
    • The DOJ is using AI to better understand the global drug market and the impact of illicit drugs on communities and individuals, in order to further drug trafficking
      investigations and protect the American public.
  • The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) expands humanity’s ability to
    safely traverse Mars by using AI.
    • NASA is using AI on the Mars2020 Rover to help it navigate with limited direction
      from Earth, optimizing scientific discovery from the rover’s sensors and assuring it safely traverses the planet’s hazardous terrain.