Washington: President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order aimed at accelerating artificial intelligence innovation while strengthening the federal government’s and critical infrastructure’s cyber defences.
The order directs federal agencies to prioritise protecting national security systems, military information networks, and civilian government systems against cyber threats, while expanding the use of AI-powered cybersecurity tools across government and critical infrastructure sectors.
According to the White House, the executive order seeks to “advance American artificial intelligence (AI) innovation to strengthen America’s cybersecurity, protect critical infrastructure, and ensure the United States remains the global leader in AI innovation.”
Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security, working with other federal agencies, will issue directives to accelerate cyber defence efforts and facilitate access to advanced AI-enabled cybersecurity tools for federal agencies, state and local governments, and operators of critical infrastructure, including rural hospitals, community banks, and local utilities.
The order also establishes an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse that will work voluntarily with AI companies and infrastructure operators to identify software vulnerabilities, coordinate responses, and accelerate the distribution of security patches.
In addition, federal agencies have been directed to identify funding opportunities for advanced AI cybersecurity technologies and expand cybersecurity hiring programmes through the federal workforce.
A central feature of the order is the creation of a classified benchmarking process to evaluate advanced AI models for cyber capabilities. The framework will help determine when a model qualifies as a “covered frontier model” and establish voluntary cooperation between AI developers and the federal government.
The administration said the framework would allow trusted government partners to gain early access to advanced AI systems before broader deployment, thereby strengthening cybersecurity and supporting secure innovation. At the same time, the order explicitly states that it does not authorise “any mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement” for the development or release of AI models.
The order also directs the Attorney General to prioritise enforcement actions against individuals who use AI to illegally access computer systems, steal data, or facilitate other criminal activity.
The move drew criticism from Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, who argued that the administration was revisiting ideas it had previously discarded.
“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. He described parts of the order as “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”.
Warner nevertheless welcomed several provisions, including voluntary pre-deployment testing of advanced AI systems and expanded information-sharing efforts on software vulnerabilities, saying he was “strongly supportive” of those initiatives.
(IANS)
