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In the beginning of 2025, the US Administration issued some executive orders, including recent President’s EO “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI” (adopted in January 2025). One part of this EO is called “Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance and Public Trust”; it contains some risk management provisions, including AI impact assessments, for “high-impact AI use cases.” Some similarities in approached to AI between the US and the EU are evident.
Introduction
This EO revokes former President Biden’s 2023 executive order on AI, which focused on providing US industry with guidance for oversight and safety tests of AI systems that pose risks to national security, the economy and/or public health.
In contrast, Trump’s new EO emphasizes eliminating regulatory obstacles to foster AI innovation, aiming to solidify the US’ global position. The order instructs key White House officials to develop an action plan within 180 days to achieve these objectives. Actually, President Trump signed the first-ever Executive Order on AI in 2019 recognizing the paramount importance of American AI leadership to the economic and national security of the United States.
Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-enhance-americas-ai-leadership/
EU-US similarities in AI implementation
Quite interesting, as it seems, Trump’s EO was inspired by the European AI legislation; e.g. the
ways they define high-impact AI use cases: “AI with an output that serves as a principal basis for decisions or actions with legal, material, binding, or significant effect on: 1. an individual or entity’s civil rights, civil liberties, or privacy; 2. an individual or entity’s access to education, housing, insurance, credit, employment, and other programs; 3. an individual or entity’s access to critical government resources or services; 4. human health and safety; 5. critical infrastructure or public safety; 6. strategic assets or resources, including high-value property and information marked as sensitive or classified by the Federal Government.”
More on similarities in the description of the US AI initiative below.
The enumeration of such similarities is evidently similar to the EU AI Act’s Annex III which is covering a detailed list of high-risk AI systems. Besides, this type of open-ended, non-exhaustive provision for a high-risk category is actually stricter than the EU AI Act’s high-risk classification; so, there is no need to complain about EU’s overregulation.
These AI Policy Memos from the US have a limited scope; the EU AI legislation is much more than an initial risk classification. But important to mention is that the US also takes measures to regulate AI, which are definitely taking inspiration from the EU efforts, and/or vices-versa.
This executive order calls for the development of an “Artificial Intelligence Action Plan” to establish a policy agenda to ensure the US maintains and strengthens its global AI dominance (just as the EU recently postulated).
More in: https://www.integrin.dk/2025/04/10/ais-continental-plan-europe-heads-toward-global-digital-leadership/
AI advantages in governance
It aims to promote economic competitiveness, bolster national security and prioritize AI systems free from “ideological bias and engineered social agendas.” The order directs White House officials to review and modify or revoke existing policies and directives that inhibit AI innovation and leadership. The order follows an executive order issued by the Trump Administration on Jan. 20, 2025, rescinding the Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14110 of Oct. 30, 2023 (Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence) (the Biden AI EO).
Source: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2025/01/executive-order-removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-ai
The US AI initiative
On February 11, 2025, the US President signed an Executive Order launching the American AI Initiative. This Initiative is expected to “focus the resources of the Federal government to develop AI in order to increase nation’s prosperity, enhance economic security and improve peoples’ quality of life”.
The American AI Initiative is also expected to accelerate the country’s leadership in AI. By driving technological breakthroughs in AI, breaking barriers to AI innovation, preparing our workforce for the jobs of the future, and protecting America’s advantage in AI, the initiative is ensuring that AI technologies continue to improve the lives of our people, create jobs, reflect the Nation’s values, as well as keep Americans safe at home and abroad.
This initiative takes a multi-pronged approach to accelerating national leadership in AI, and includes five key areas:
= 1. Investing in AI Research and Development (R&D)
The initiative focuses on maintaining the US strong, long-term emphasis on high-reward, fundamental R&D in AI by directing Federal agencies to prioritize AI investments in their R&D missions. These investments will strengthen and leverage America’s unique and vibrant R&D ecosystem of industry, academia and government, as well as prioritize Federal AI spending on cutting-edge ideas that can directly benefit the American people.
= 2. Unleashing AI Resources
The initiative directs agencies to make Federal data, models and computing resources more available to the states AI R&D experts, researchers and industries to foster public trust and increase the value of these resources to AI R&D experts, while maintaining the safety, security, civil liberties, privacy and expected confidentiality protection. This action will drive state’s top-notch AI research toward new technological breakthroughs and promote scientific discovery, economic competitiveness and national security. These efforts will work in concert with the President’s Management Agenda and implementing the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary, Government Data Act (OPEN).
= 3. Setting AI Governance Standards
As part of this AI Initiative, the US federal agencies will foster public trust in AI systems by establishing guidance for AI development and use across different types of technology and industrial sectors. This guidance will help Federal regulatory agencies develop and maintain approaches for the safe and trustworthy creation and adoption of new AI technologies. This initiative also calls for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to lead the development of appropriate technical standards for reliable, robust, trustworthy, secure, portable and interoperable AI systems.
= 4. Building the AI Workforce
To prepare workforce with the skills needed to adapt and thrive in the new digital age, the American AI Initiative calls for agencies to prioritize fellowship and training programs to help American workers gain AI-relevant skills through apprenticeships, skills programs, fellowships and education in computer science and other growing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. This action will help educate the AI R&D workforce the US needs to create and embrace new AI technologies.
= 5. International Engagement and Protecting American AI Advantage
The Trump Administration is committed to promoting an international environment that supports AI R&D and opens markets for American AI industries while also ensuring that the technology is developed in a manner consistent with the nation’s values and interests. Federal agencies will also develop and implement an action plan to protect the US advantage in AI and technology critical to the US national and economic security interests against strategic competitors and foreign adversaries.
Additional source and reference to “Accelerating America’s Leadership in Artificial Intelligence”, February 11, 2019; in: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/articles/accelerating-americas-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/