New White House AI Guidance Focuses on American Products, Reviewing Risk
The Trump Administration rolled out new guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) replacing guidance from the Biden Administration. The pair of memos from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are among the Trump Administration’s first official actions on AI.
The first memo claims to give agencies the “tools necessary to embrace AI innovation, while maintaining strong protections for Americans’ privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.”
Agencies are given 180 days to “develop an AI Strategy for identifying and removing barriers to their responsible use of AI and for achieving enterprise-wide improvements in the maturity of their applications.”
Among the changes:
Agency Chief AI Officer roles are tasked with promoting agency-wide AI innovation and adoption for lower-risk AI, mitigating risks for higher-impact AI, and advising on AI investments and spending.
Agencies will produce an AI adoption maturity assessment to better track progress.
Accountability for AI will mirror the existing process for using government IT.
Maximize the use of American-made AI.
“The OMB’s AI memo’s focus on delivering measurable value from use of AI is encouraging, as is its specific focus on public consultation, but I am concerned about agencies’ ability to deliver on this promise given the recent workforce reductions impacting AI talent,” Taka Ariga, former AI chief at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told Federal News Network.
AI Procurement
The second memo laid out changes to government procurement of AI products and focuses on supporting American-made AI technology and building a competitive U.S. AI marketplace. The memo provides “concise, effective guidance on how to acquire best-in-class AI quickly, competitively, and responsibly.”
Among the orders: the General Services Administration (GSA) has 100 days to develop a plan to publicly assist agencies in buying AI tools. GSA then has 200 days to create an online portal for federal agencies for knowledge sharing on AI procurement.
Agencies meanwhile have 270 days to update internal procedures to comply with the memo. In 200 days, agencies must make sure they have processes and contractual terms to address the use of government data and clearly delineate the respective ownership and IP rights of the government and the contractor.
Contractors say they are supportive but worry that a lot of the deadlines are in fiscal year (FY) 2026.
“This one references lot of different things, but by targeting three initial areas, it at least helps frame the universe,” said an unnamed contracting executive to Federal News Network. “With technology that moves this quickly, you will run into problems. I don’t think you can get away from that by just issuing a new memo.”
