# Trump administration releases scaled-back AI executive order > Source: > Published: 2026-06-02 16:53:46+00:00 # Trump administration releases scaled-back AI executive order The Trump administration issued a revised executive order Tuesday focused on artificial intelligence, offering a significantly pared-back vision for the federal government’s role vetting AI systems compared with a draft version that was [spiked weeks ago](https://cyberscoop.com/trump-postpones-executive-order-focused-on-ai-security/). The order keeps in place the administration’s largely voluntary framework for companies to engage with the federal government around testing new models before release, but appears to considerably weaken or loosen provisions that had been opposed by industry. Under the order, AI companies would voluntarily provide the federal government access to frontier models before release, but now it will be for “up to” 30 days instead of the 90-day timeline included in previous drafts. It also explicitly states that nothing in the program will be construed as mandatory or part of a federal licensing or permitting regime, and gives AI companies significant influence to help define what models would and would not be covered under for testing. It also states that all federal testing and access to the models would be subject to “confidentiality, cybersecurity, insider-risk, and intellectual-property protection, use, and nondisclosure requirements.” Section one of the order highlights the central friction that has plagued the Trump administration’s AI policy since assuming power: While the White House increasingly sees national security implications in the rapid release of frontier models from the private sector, it has also been one of the loudest critics of regulating the technology for fear it could harm American businesses. “The United States continues to lead the world in Artificial Intelligence (AI) because of the enormous talent and innovation of our AI industry, and because we refuse to stifle this innovation with overly burdensome regulation,” the order reads. That argument was bolstered in recent days as industry members and top advisers to Trump, like tech investor and AI czar David Sacks, lobbied against previous draft language, [arguing](https://go.bsky.app/redirect?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fthe-white-house-is-at-war-with-itself-over-ai-regulation%2F) it would put too much of a regulatory burden on U.S. businesses. The order also puts the Department of Treasury at the head of a new interagency cybersecurity clearinghouse on AI, where the private sector, critical infrastructure operators and federal agencies voluntarily collaborate to coordinate and deconflict scanning for software vulnerabilities, discovery and validation and remediation activities, like patching. Treasury, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the NSA, the Office of the National Cyber Director and other agencies would also be responsible for developing classified benchmarks that would be used to identify or flag the kind of advanced cyber and hacking capabilities that agencies are interested in testing. **Questions linger over implementation, politicization** Consisting of less than 1200 words, the directive is vague in many areas about exactly how implementation will work. “On frontier capability access, vulnerability discovery for critical infrastructure, and sharing with trusted partners, many questions remain,” wrote American Enterprise Institute fellow Ryan Fedasiuk. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., said the order would help the White House “begin to grapple” with the threats that new frontier models and their hacking capabilities pose to critical infrastructure and praised certain provisions, like putting the NSA in charge of classified testing of new models. But he was also sharply critical of the administration’s about face on the need for federal scrutiny of emerging AI technologies. “Once again, the Trump administration has belatedly discovered the need to redo something it hastily dismantled in its first year,” Warner said in a statement. “While this course correction – a rehash of proposals contained in the last administration’s 2023 executive order, bipartisan congressional legislation, and each of the last three years of intel authorization bills the Senate Intel Committee has passed – can begin to grapple with widespread impacts that new frontier models will have on our critical infrastructure, it can’t undo the years wasted on dismantling some of the most vital pillars of our nation’s cybersecurity response, including key information sharing initiatives and the federal agency established to protect the security of U.S. critical infrastructure.” Warner also said he will be “watchful” for indications the administration may politicize any testing regime, for instance, such as using the partnerships “to pressure U.S. firms into making changes to their products or Terms of Service to suit partisan or legally questionable objectives of the president and his allies.” The administration’s lighter touch approach around voluntary testing yielded approval from some experts who have traditionally been more in favor of regulation, but who also expressed similar worries about the downsides of putting the federal government in charge of vetting AI models. Samir Jain of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that while AI models pose real cybersecurity threats to critical services, the order “attempts to avoid the deeply concerning implications of a mandatory licensing regime for release of new models.” “Testing and benchmarking programs are important to promote cybersecurity and address other risks,” Jain said in a statement. “However, the EO should not become a mechanism for the Administration to punish companies for political or other arbitrary reasons, and so we will be closely monitoring the details of its implementation as they emerge.” You can read the full order on the White House’s [website](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/promoting-advanced-artificial-intelligence-innovation-and-security/).