AI in July (2025)
Written by Emily Wolfteich
Senior Industry Analyst
The Trump administration released a comprehensive policy roadmap, "America's AI Action Plan," along with three new executive orders. The plan aims to secure U.S. leadership in AI by promoting deregulation, fostering innovation, and investing in infrastructure and workforce development. It also explicitly targets what the administration calls "woke AI" by directing federal agencies to only procure AI tools that are "ideologically neutral" and by recommending the National Institute of Standards and Technology remove diversity, equity, and inclusion references from its AI Risk Management Framework. The policy also encourages states to abandon their own AI regulations by making federal funding contingent on deregulation.
2. The House passes defense bill with AI-related provisions.
The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2026 included significant provisions related to AI and defense. The bill mandates a study on how to use AI for military targeting to improve accuracy and minimize civilian casualties. It also gives a boost to AI, satellite, and other technology programs to help the U.S. maintain a technological edge over adversaries. The bill aims to streamline the process for the Department of Defense to acquire technology from non-traditional defense contractors.
3. OpenAI offers $1 ChatGPT access to the General Services Administration (GSA).
The GSA signed a partnership agreement with OpenAI, a move intended to support the Trump administration's AI Action Plan and help federal agencies adopt advanced AI tools. Through this pact, the GSA will offer OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise to agencies at a steep discount of $1 per agency for the next year. This initiative is part of a broader government-wide effort to accelerate the adoption and use of AI technology within the federal workforce.
4. Lawsuit challenges the administration's use of AI in deregulation.
A public policy nonprofit, Democracy Forward, filed a lawsuit to obtain records related to the Trump administration's use of AI in governmental decision-making. The lawsuit specifically seeks to uncover whether the administration is using AI to rewrite or repeal regulations. This legal challenge highlights growing concerns among watchdog groups about a lack of transparency and potential pitfalls, such as a reliance on flawed AI systems, in the government's use of the technology for regulatory purposes.
5. Controversy over AI Action Plan's stance on state regulations.
The AI Action Plan has drawn criticism for its stance on state and local AI regulations thanks to its plan to tie a state's eligibility for federal grants to the hospitality of its legal climate toward private-sector AI companies, effectively pressuring states to drop their own regulations. Critics, including more than 40 state attorneys general and 17 Republican governors, voiced concern that this move is an overreach of federal power that could undermine states' ability to create their own civil liberties protections. The provision is seen by some as a workaround for a controversial moratorium on state AI laws that failed in Congress.
To read additional thought leadership from Emily, connect with her on LinkedIn.
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