Trump rescinds Biden's trustworthy AI development order

On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump rescinded a slew of executive orders, including one that mandated trustworthy AI development.

Passed by former President Joe Biden on Oct. 30, 2023, the sweeping executive order detailed eight guiding principles and priorities for AI development. These included ensuring that AI is safe through "robust, reliable, repeatable, and standardized evaluations of AI systems," investing in AI-related education, training, development, research and capacity, mitigating bias in AI systems and protecting Americans' privacy.

"Harnessing AI for good and realizing its myriad benefits requires mitigating its substantial risks. This endeavor demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society," the executive order stated. "My Administration places the highest urgency on governing the development and use of AI safely and responsibly, and is therefore advancing a coordinated, Federal Government-wide approach to doing so."

The executive order had implications for healthcare AI development. Experts previously noted that the order offered a framework for creating uniform standards and guardrails for healthcare AI and a roadmap for potential AI regulations. These standards and guardrails are especially critical in the healthcare industry, where human lives are at risk.

Not only that, but AI-based algorithmic bias could also widen existing care gaps and spur health inequities. One research article published in 2023 underscored the ways in which AI could negatively impact upstream determinants of health, which the American Medical Association describes as individual factors that might seem unrelated to health on the surface but influence patients' long-term health.

Rescinding Biden's executive order could spur faster but more unsafe AI development in healthcare.

In his new executive order, Trump stated that the Biden administration "embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government." The rescissions are intended to "make our Nation united, fair, safe, and prosperous again" and "restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen."

The rescissions themselves do not come as a complete surprise. In November 2024, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are being tapped to play critical roles in the new administration, laid out their plans for the newly created Department of Government Efficiency in The Wall Street Journal. The duo wrote that they would advise DOGE to pursue "three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws."

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.