Why Trump's order targeting 'woke' AI may be impossible to follow

President Donald Trump wants to ensure the US government only gives federal contracts to artificial intelligence developers whose systems are "free from ideological bias". But the new requirements could allow his administration to impose its own worldview on tech companies' AI models – and companies may face significant challenges and risks in trying to modify their models to comply. "The suggestion that government contracts should be structured to ensure AI systems are'objective' and'free from top-down ideological bias' prompts the question: objective according to whom?" says Becca Branum at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a public policy non-profit in Washington DC. The Trump White House's AI Action Plan, released on 23 July, recommends updating federal guidelines "to ensure that the government only contracts with frontier large language model (LLM) developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias". Trump signed a related executive order titled "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" on the same day.