Artificial Intelligence

Do You Trust the Government to Control AI?

Donald Trump wants to give it a little more control. Bernie Sanders wants to give it a lot.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 6.3.2026 12:07 PM

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This week brings starkly different artificial intelligence visions from President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.). Thankfully, only the former has the force of law.

Couched in the language of giving power to "the American people," Sanders' plan actually presents a frighteningly authoritarian vision in which the federal government gains significant control over private AI companies and the future of output.

In contrast, the White House's AI vision is—at least this week—admirably restrained.

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Trump Rejects Pre-Approval Scheme for New AI Models

Trump's executive order on "Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security," issued yesterday, mainly focuses on shoring up the "cyber defense" of federal systems and establishing processes to detect and patch vulnerabilities. It also instructs the National Security Agency and officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to "develop and maintain a classified benchmarking process to assess the advanced cyber capabilities of AI models and determine the threshold at which an AI model" is deemed a "frontier model."And it would institute a voluntary program through which AI developers could share new models with the federal government for both assessment and cybersecurity purposes.

But—this is important—it explicitly states that nothing in it "shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models."

Is it perfect? No. It "wisely stops short of calling for mandatory government licensing, but leaves plenty of room for future........

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