President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the federal government from buying AI tech that includes “partisan bias or ideological agendas such as critical race theory.” The move aims to scrub AI models used by the government of what Trump calls “woke” ideals.
The directive demands AI tools like large language models—think ChatGPT—follow Trump’s “unbiased AI principles.” These include “truth seeking,” which prioritizes factual accuracy, and “ideological neutrality,” meaning no political or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) influence in outputs.
The order forbids embedding partisan or ideological judgments unless directly prompted by users. It targets AI models procured by federal agencies but avoids regulating private market AI. 
Trump said during the announcement:
“From now on, the US government will deal only with AI that pursues truth, fairness and strict impartiality.”
The policy warns that AI should not distort facts on race or sex, nor incorporate concepts like critical race theory or systemic racism.
Experts note AI bias is complex since models reflect their training data and human feedback. Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, told CNN:
“AI models don’t have beliefs or biases the way that people do, but it is true that they can exhibit biases or systematic leanings, particularly in response to certain queries.”
Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) slammed the order and urged major AI firms to resist it. He called the administration’s plan:
“dangerous and unconstitutional… using their political power — both through the executive branch and through congressional investigations — to modify the platforms’ speech.”
Recent studies show AI responses often skew left-leaning by default, likely due to guardrails set to avoid offensive content. Stanford Professor Andrew Hall explained:
“I think the companies were kind of like guarding against backlash from the left for a while, and those policies may have further created this sort of slanted output.”
But tightening rules on ideological bias could slow AI innovation for companies working with the government. Etzioni warned:
“This type of thing… creates all kinds of concerns and liability and complexity for the people developing these models — all of a sudden, they have to slow down.”
The new executive order puts AI companies in a bind—meet Trump’s strict “unbiased” standards or risk losing gov contracts. How the administration will judge ideological bias in AI remains unclear.
Read the full executive order here.
