Trump’s AI Playbook: White House Pushes Congress to Clear the Way for a National Rulebook

The White House on Friday rolled out a new artificial intelligence framework that urges Congress to take a lighter regulatory approach and override a growing patchwork of state AI laws, marking the Trump administration’s clearest signal yet on how it wants Washington to govern the fast-moving technology. The proposal argues that a single federal standard is needed to protect innovation, strengthen national competitiveness and avoid what officials see as a confusing web of state-by-state restrictions.

At the center of the plan are six broad principles meant to guide lawmakers, including child safety protections, safeguards against rising electricity costs tied to AI’s energy demands, respect for intellectual property, protections against censorship, and efforts to improve public understanding of the technology. The administration says the goal is to make sure Americans can trust AI systems without choking off growth in a sector the White House sees as critical to economic strength and national security.

The framework also lands in the middle of an intensifying fight over who should write the rules for AI. Several states, including Colorado, California, Utah and Texas, have already passed laws governing private-sector AI use, while consumer advocates and civil liberties groups have pressed for tougher guardrails. The White House, however, has argued that too many local rules could slow development and weaken the country’s edge in the global AI race.

On copyright, the administration stops short of calling for new legislation, instead signaling that courts should settle the legal battle over whether AI companies can train models on copyrighted material. That position is likely to deepen an already heated debate between tech firms, artists and publishers as Congress weighs whether it can find consensus on AI in an election-year political climate.