Part 3 - AI regulation in the US

This is Part 3 of 'Regulation of AI

The American approach to AI regulation changed significantly with the new Trump administration. President Biden had signed an Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence in October 2023. In January 2025, President Trump revoked President Biden's Order and signed an Executive Order on Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (the Trump Order).

The Trump Order is framed as eliminating unnecessarily burdensome requirements put in place by the Biden Order that hindered the US' ability to innovate and requires US departments to rescind any policies and actions taken under the Biden Order that are "inconsistent with enhancing America's leadership in AI". In July 2025, the White House released its strategic action plan on AI. The action plan is broad in scope and emphasises deregulation, infrastructure development and coordinated federal strategy. At the end of 2025, President Trump issued the Executive Order Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence (the EO), to seek to advance “a minimally burdensome national policy framework” for AI and to limit state-level AI regulation.

Federal agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have produced guidance on AI including the AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) for organisations designing, developing, deploying, or using AI systems. In April 2026, NIST issued a concept note for an AI RMF Profile on Trustworthy AI in Critical Infrastructure. In its sectoral work, NIST has launched its AI Agent Standards Initiative, aiming to establish clearer, more consistent foundations for agentic AI. The US AI Safety Institute has been reestablished as the Center for AI Standards and Innovation which acts as the primary industry contact point for AI testing and collaborative research, working with NIST on guidelines, best practices and voluntary standards. It also focuses on evaluations of national-security-relevant AI capabilities.

Several states have passed legislation to regulate AI. In California, Assembly Bill 2013 (regarding training data transparency), came into effect in January 2026, and Senate Bill 942 (regarding transparency around AI-generated content) comes into effect in August 2026. Texas has enacted a broad AI law, HB 149, the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act, effective from 1 January 2026. It applies mainly to government agencies and creates protections for consumers, a regulatory sandbox and an AI Council.