On his first day in office of his second term, President Donald Trump revoked Joe Biden's 2023 executive order, which aimed to establish standards for the safe, secure and trustworthy development of AI across various sectors, including healthcare.
Among its many provisions, Biden's order directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a safety program "to help ensure the safe, responsible deployment and use of AI in the healthcare, public-health and human-services sectors" and to allow the agency to "receive reports of – and act to remedy – harms or unsafe healthcare practices involving AI."
Within 90 days of Biden's order, which was signed in October 2023, HHS was to establish an HHS AI Task Force that would develop a strategic plan that included policies and frameworks around "responsible deployment and use of AI and AI-enabled technologies in the health and human services sector," including in drug and device safety, financing, healthcare delivery, research and discovery and public health.
The Task Force would also identify the appropriate guidance and resources to promote the responsible deployment of AI in the health and human services sector.
It included launching a pilot of the National AI Research Resource to drive nationwide innovation and promote policies providing small developers and entrepreneurs with more technical support and resources. It aimed to modernize visa criteria in order to enable skilled immigrants in critical fields to study and work in the U.S.
The order also mandated that developers of advanced AI systems provide the federal government with safety test results and other critical information.
Biden's order acknowledged AI's potential for advancing care delivery but highlighted that the technology "raises the risk of injuring, misleading or otherwise harming Americans."
Trump's executive order signed on Monday, "Initial Recissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions," included the revocation of Biden's order, along with 66 other executive orders Biden signed and 11 Presidential Memoranda.
"The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government," Trump's executive order reads.
"To commence the policies that will make our Nation united, fair, safe and prosperous again, it is the policy of the United States to restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of the American citizen. The revocations within this order will be the first of many steps the United States Federal Government will take to repair our institutions and our economy."
THE LARGER TREND
In December, the U.S. Bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence released its report highlighting America's leadership in its approach to responsible AI innovation and the guardrails applicable to safeguard the nation against current and emerging threats.
Among its numerous findings, the task force noted that AI use in healthcare may reduce administrative burdens and speed up drug development and clinical diagnosis; however, the lack of ubiquitous, uniform standards for medical data and algorithms may obstruct system interoperability and data sharing.
A month before, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its perspective on regulating AI in healthcare and biomedicine, stating that oversight needs to be coordinated across all regulated industries, international organizations and the U.S. government.
In August, the EU AI Act came into effect, delineating regulations for the development, market placement, implementation and use of artificial intelligence in the European Union.