Politico

President Donald Trump’s sudden decision to scrap an AI executive order on May 21 has exposed a rift within the White House on how to regulate the emerging technology. There are three main camps in the West Wing, per two senior White House officials. The first, which includes former AI czar David Sacks, favors less regulation to help the industry compete against China.

President Donald Trump seemed on the verge of signing an executive order granting the government far more oversight of cutting-edge AI models. Industry officials had been briefed on details of the directive; top tech executives had been invited to the signing ceremony—some were even midair, en route to Washington. Then, hours before the signing, the White House abruptly reversed course, postponing the executive order. “I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” President Trump told reporters. “I postponed it.

The artificial intelligence industry’s push for tech-friendly federal legislation is foundering in Washington. So OpenAI’s top lobbyist and political strategist is pursuing a backup strategy—setting national AI policy by waging a state-by-state campaign. Chris Lehane calls the plan “reverse federalism”: With Capitol Hill deadlocked, the company behind ChatGPT is increasingly spending its time lobbying for state legislatures to pass laws on AI safety that the industry can live with.

The United States is about to make a big bet on high-speed satellite internet that promises a new model for how space technology could digitally connect the most remote parts of the country—assuming it works. Clusters of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have provided internet access in areas across the globe. But the technology is relatively new and unproven, even as it promises to bring high-speed internet to rural and isolated parts of the U.S.