Trump signs executive orders on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and more pardon issues

US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order related to AI “to make America the capital of the world in artificial intelligence,” his aide said in the Oval Office of the White House.

The order sets a 180-day deadline for an AI action plan to create policy to “sustain AIM AIRANT dominance in America in order to advance human prosperity, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

Trump also told his artificial intelligence advisor and national security aide to work to remove policies and regulations put in place by former President Joe Biden.

Trump on Monday rescinded a 2023 executive order signed by Biden that sought to reduce the risks posed by artificial intelligence to consumers, workers and national security.

Biden’s order requires developers of AI systems that pose risks to US national security, the economy, public health or safety to share safety test results with the US government, in keeping with the Defense Production Act, before releasing them to the public.

Trump also signed an executive order creating a cryptocurrency working group tasked with proposing a new regulatory framework for digital assets and exploring the creation of cryptocurrency stocks.

The long-awaited measure also ordered the protection of banking services for crypto companies, prohibiting the creation of central bank digital currencies that could compete with existing cryptocurrencies.

The order sees Trump making good on a campaign trail pledge to be a “crypto president and advance digital asset adoption.”

This is in stark contrast to Biden’s regulators, who, in an attempt to protect Americans from fraud and money laundering, have cracked down on crypto companies, suing exchanges Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and dozens of others in federal court, claiming they were evading US laws.

The working group will consist of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, along with other agency heads. The group is tasked with developing a regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency usually pegged to the US dollar.

The group is also set to “evaluate the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset inventory…potentially derived from cryptocurrencies that have been lawfully seized by the federal government through law enforcement efforts.”

In December, Trump named venture capital and former CEO David Sachs CCR and AI. He said that the command will chair the group.

Finally, Trump signed pardons to 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House.

The pardon came a day before anti-abortion protesters were scheduled to descend on Washington for the annual March for Life.