President Trump Halts Push to Block State-Level AI Regulations

The White House has reportedly paused an executive order designed to stop state-level regulation of artificial intelligence (AI).

The draft executive order would have targeted those AI rules with lawsuits and by withholding federal funds. But as Reuters reported Friday (Nov. 21), citing unnamed sources, those plans are now on hold.

The report said that while the order was likely to face major pushback from the states, the fact that it was even considered demonstrates the extent of the Trump administration’s willingness to assist AI companies dealing with laws they claim limit innovation.

The executive order would have called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an “AI Litigation Task Force whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge state AI laws, including on grounds that such laws unconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce, are preempted by existing federal regulations, or are otherwise unlawful,” the Reuters report said, citing a document seen by the news outlet.

In a post on his Truth Social platform last week, President Donald Trump had called for a federal standard “instead of a patchwork” of state AI regulations.

Beyond the White House, the tech industry has also made efforts to combat state-level AI regulations. For example, Meta in September launched a super PAC dubbed the American Technology Excellence Project that will push to elect AI- and tech-friendly lawmakers at the state level, while working against those it views as insufficiently supportive of their sector.

Among some of the state-level AI regulations include a series of AI and social-media bills passed in California last month that created the nation’s most extensive state-level safeguards for minors, while also mandating that AI developers disclose their training data.

“The laws mark the most comprehensive attempt yet by a U.S. state to regulate how generative AI and social platforms interact with users,” PYMNTS wrote at the time.

In other AI news, recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that while headlines tend to focus on Generation Z’s comfort with emerging technology, there is a broader narrative of uneven adoption driven by employment patterns, experience with using digital systems, and trust in new technology.

The data, from the report “Generation AI: Why Gen Z Bets Big and Boomers Hold Back,” illustrates that AI’s value proposition depends on who is using it and why.

“Across the population, 57% of adults now use generative AI, equal to roughly 149 million people,” PYMNTS wrote. “Young consumers lean on the technology for personal and professional tasks, while older ones are more selective and more skeptical.”

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