Read the AI executive order Trump didn’t sign

• President Donald Trump was expected to sign an executive order on AI oversight this week, but the event was postponed.
• “I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” Trump said, adding that he worried the order might slow US efforts to beat China in AI.
• A draft of the unsigned executive order, obtained by POLITICO, emphasizes that government AI reviews would be voluntary.

POLITICO has obtained a draft of the executive order on artificial intelligence that President Donald Trump had been expected to sign Thursday afternoon, only to abruptly postpone the event.

The document — available here — was meant to address concerns that advanced AI products from companies such as Anthropic could unleash devastating cyberattacks and wreak other havoc if they fell into the wrong hands. It called for creating a voluntary oversight system in which developers of advanced AI models could submit their products to a review by federal agencies as much as 90 days before releasing them, POLITICO previously reported.

Among other details, the seven-page draft emphasizes that the government AI reviews would be voluntary: “Nothing in this section 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.”

Despite such assurances, former Trump AI czar David Sacks raised concerns that the voluntary reviews may one day become mandatory, a senior White House official told POLITICO on Thursday.

The draft also includes language aimed at bad actors. It directs the attorney general to enforce the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and “other applicable Federal criminal laws against anyone who utilizes AI to illegally access or damage a computer without authorization, or who utilizes AI while engaged in such illegal access to further any other crime.”

Administration officials had briefed major tech companies about the order’s contents this week, and top AI industry executives had been invited to attend a Thursday signing ceremony at the White House.

But Trump told reporters he hit the brakes.

“I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” the president said, adding that he worried the order might slow U.S. efforts to beat China in the race to dominate AI.

The administration has not said what changes might be made in the order or when the signing might be rescheduled.

Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.

This story originally ran in POLITICO and appears on Business Insider through the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network. The network publishes major stories from the Axel Springer network of publications, a worldwide group of news outlets that includes Business Insider.