How Harris and Trump differ on artificial intelligence policy

Two days after President Joe Biden signed a major executive order on artificial intelligence last year, Vice President Kamala Harris presented it at a global AI summit. She highlighted what makes the U.S. different in handling AI safety.

Harris shifted the conversation to current issues at the event, which focused on future AI risks. She emphasized the need to create protections quickly, without hindering innovation.

“When a senior loses his healthcare plan because of a faulty AI algorithm, isn’t that a major issue for him?” Harris told a crowd in London last November. “When an abusive partner threatens a woman with fake explicit photos, isn’t that a major issue for her?”

Now, Harris is running for president. Her main opponent, former President Donald Trump, has said he wants to cancel the Biden order. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, has his views on AI, influenced by his connections to Silicon Valley figures who want to limit AI regulation.

AI’s increasing presence in everyday life has made it a popular topic of discussion, but it hasn’t yet become a top concern for American voters. However, this might be the first presidential election where candidates are offering different ideas on how to lead the development of this rapidly advancing technology.

Here are the candidates’ records on AI:

Trump’s approach

Biden signed his AI executive order on October 30th of last year. Shortly after, Trump indicated on the campaign trail that he would eliminate it if re-elected. This promise was included in the platform of this month’s Republican National Convention.

“We will repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI innovation and imposes radical left-wing ideas on the development of this technology,” says Trump’s platform. “Instead, Republicans support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing.”

The Trump campaign did not provide more details when asked.

During his time as president, Trump didn’t talk much about AI. However, in 2019, he became the first president to sign an executive order about AI. This order told federal agencies to focus on AI research and development.

Before this, tech experts were asking the Trump administration to have a stronger AI strategy like other countries. In 2017, just before Google made a big research breakthrough in AI, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dismissed worries about AI taking jobs, saying it was so far off that “it’s not even on my radar screen.”

That view changed later. In 2018, Trump’s top tech adviser told business leaders that AI-related job losses are “inevitable” and that “we can’t just wait and hope the market will fix it.” The 2019 executive order instructed federal agencies to “protect civil liberties, privacy, and American values” when using AI technologies and to help workers learn new skills.

Trump also in the waning weeks of his administration signed an executive order promoting the use of “trustworthy” AI in the federal government. Those policies carried over into the Biden administration.

Harris’ approach

The launch of ChatGPT during Biden’s presidency made it clear that politicians could no longer ignore AI. Shortly after, Harris brought leaders from Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies to the White House. This was the first step towards getting these developers to agree to voluntary commitments to ensure their technology doesn’t threaten people’s rights and safety.

Then came Biden’s AI executive order, which used national security powers from the Korean War era to review high-risk AI systems. However, the order mostly focused on protecting the government’s use of AI and setting standards to encourage commercial use. Unlike the European Union, the U.S. still doesn’t have broad AI regulations, which would need Congress to pass.

Harris brought a deep knowledge of Silicon Valley to the White House. She grew up and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and was also California’s attorney general, where she built connections with tech leaders. This information comes from Alondra Nelson, the former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Before ChatGPT, Nelson led the White House in creating a plan for an AI “bill of rights” to protect against potential harm from the technology. However, it was Harris’s speech at the Global Summit on AI Safety in London that tied everything together and presented America’s AI strategy to the world, according to Nelson.

Harris stated that she and Biden “reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation.” While recognizing the need to address major threats to humanity, Harris also highlighted “the full spectrum of AI risk.”

Nelson noted that Harris expanded the discussion on AI by bringing up all possible risks and harms.

Vance and the VCs

Trump’s choice of former venture capitalist JD Vance as his running mate introduced a new dynamic to the campaign differences. Trump’s recent endorsements from AI-focused tech leaders, including Elon Musk and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, also added to this.

Vance has recognized some harmful AI uses but mentioned at a July Senate hearing that he worries such concerns might lead to “preemptive overregulation” that could unfairly benefit the current tech giants.

Andreessen, who is on Meta Platforms’ board, has criticized part of Biden’s order that demands government review of the most powerful and potentially risky AI systems based on their speed of calculations.

In a podcast with his business partner Horowitz, Andreessen explained their support for Trump. He expressed worry about “the idea that we’re going to intentionally restrict ourselves with heavy regulations while the rest of the world, especially China, advances rapidly in AI.”

Horowitz read the RNC’s call to repeal Biden’s order and remarked, “That sounds like a good plan to me,” mentioning that he and Andreessen had discussed these proposals with Trump at a dinner.

In June, Trump met with another group of venture capitalists in a video podcast, where they discussed that AI leadership will need vast amounts of electricity. Trump repeated this view at the RNC, stating that it will require “twice the electricity that’s available now in our country.” This was the only mention of AI in his 92-minute speech.

Are they that different from AI?

We still don’t know how much Harris or the Trump-Vance ticket will listen to their Silicon Valley backers.

Even though their rhetoric is becoming more different, Aaron Cooper, senior vice president of global policy for BSA The Software Alliance (which represents software companies like Microsoft), says there are “a lot of similarities” in how the Trump and Biden administrations handle AI policy.

Voters haven’t received much detail on how a Harris or a second Trump administration would address this issue.

Cooper explained that, as technology evolves and new issues come up, any administration will focus on maximizing the benefits of AI while minimizing its risks. “It sounds simple, but it’s not an easy calculation,” he said.