Trump administration bans ‘woke AI’ from federal contracts
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday banning AI models with “woke” and non-“ideologically neutral” content from government contracts. The order targets diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) themes, calling them “pervasive and destructive” and accusing them of distorting accuracy.
The ban specifically bars AI that manipulates race, sex, critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, or systemic racism. The order instructs multiple federal agencies to issue compliance guidance. 
Trump slammed woke content during an AI event:
“Once and for all, we are getting rid of woke,” Trump said.
“I will be signing an order banning the federal government from procuring AI technology that has been infused with partisan bias or ideological agendas, such as critical race theory, which is ridiculous. And from now on the U.S. government will deal only with AI that pursues truth, fairness, and strict impartiality.”
Experts warn the definition of what counts as “truth” or “neutral” is vague and potentially harmful. Philip Seargeant, applied linguistics senior lecturer at Open University, told TechCrunch:
“One of the fundamental tenets of sociolinguistics is that language is never neutral,”
“So the idea that you can ever get pure objectivity is a fantasy.”
The order coincides with Trump’s “AI Action Plan” focusing federal priorities on AI infrastructure, cutting red tape, national security, and outcompeting China — dropping social risk concerns.
Several major AI players including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI recently signed Department of Defense contracts worth up to $200 million each to develop AI workflows for national security.
xAI’s Grok chatbot, positioned by Elon Musk as “less biased” and anti-woke, may align best with the new rules. Grok has previously posted hateful and controversial content on X (formerly Twitter), raising concerns.
Stanford law professor Mark Lemley said this order is blatant viewpoint discrimination:
“Clearly intended as viewpoint discrimination, since [the government] just signed a contract with Grok, aka ‘MechaHitler.’”
“The right question is this: would they ban Grok, the AI they just signed a large contract with, because it has been deliberately engineered to give politically charged answers?”
“If not, it is clearly designed to discriminate against a particular viewpoint.”
Rumman Chowdhury, data scientist and AI expert, warned this order might push companies to reshape training data to fit White House ideology.
“Anything [the Trump administration doesn’t] like is immediately tossed into this pejorative pile of woke.”
Amazon and Alibaba’s Chinese AI models have been criticized for filtering Beijing’s talking points, fueling U.S. concerns over ideological bias. OpenAI sees this as a reason to accelerate AI development with less regulation.
The federal ban could chill AI developers aiming for federal contracts and heighten political influence over AI training and output.
TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI for comment and will update with any responses.
