President Donald Trump is considering signing an executive order as soon as Friday that would give the federal government unilateral power over regulating artificial intelligence, including the creation of an “AI Litigation Task Force” overseen by the attorney general, “whose sole responsibility shall be to challenge State AI laws.”
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Here’s the Trump executive order that would ban state AI laws
According to a draft of the order obtained by The Verge, the Task Force would be able to sue states whose laws are deemed to obstruct the growth of the AI industry, citing California’s recent laws on AI safety and “catastrophic risk” and a Colorado law that prevents “algorithmic discrimination.” The task force will occasionally consult with a group of White House special advisers, including David Sacks, billionaire venture capitalist and the special adviser for AI and crypto.
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly posted his desire to have a state AI law moratorium, and reiterated it on Wednesday during his appearance at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, couching it as a way to fight “woke” ideology. “You can’t go through 50 states. You have to get one approval. Fifty is a disaster. Because you’ll have one woke state and you’ll have to do all woke. You’ll be back in the woke business. We don’t have woke anymore in this country. It’s virtually illegal. You’ll have a couple of wokesters.”
As part of the AI Action Plan released earlier this year, Trump had directed several federal agencies, including the FCC, to explore ways that they could circumvent “onerous” state and local regulations in order to promote the industry’s growth and innovation. The full executive order lays out a 90-day roadmap for several key agencies to implement that plan along with the Department of Justice: the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, and the Federal Communications Commission.
Within 90 days of the order being signed, the secretary of commerce will be directed to publish a report identifying which states are in violation of Trump’s AI policy directives, as well as research which states may become ineligible for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which funds rural broadband access for several states. The FTC, meanwhile, will be directed to issue a statement on whether states that require AI companies to change their algorithms would be in violation of laws prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices.
During an appearance at Politico’s AI & Tech Summit in September, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr floated one potential interpretation of the Communications Act that would allow them to override state law. “Effectively, if a state or local law is effectively prohibiting the deployment of this ‘modern infrastructure,’ then the FCC has authorities to step in there,” he told Politico’s Alex Burns.
Carr also brought up the possibility that the FCC’s regulatory powers could override a potential new law in California that would have required AI companies to disclose their safety testing models, saying that it would fulfill Trump’s goal of blocking “woke AI” that contained ideological biases.
He cited the European Union’s Digital Safety Act and raised his concern “their AI models are not going to be truth-seeking AI models, but they’re going to be woke AI models, going to be AI models that are promoting DEI. And so again, President Trump has, as part of his action plan, steps to make sure that we don’t have that type of woke DEI embedded AI models developing here. When it comes to California, again, not familiar exactly with all the intricacy of that, but to the extent that they’re moving in that direction and away from truth seeking, it could be a problem.”
The notion that the FCC should have veto power over state AI laws — as well as other parts of Trump’s order — could easily be challenged in court. But moves like the litigation task force could still throw up roadblocks to states regulating AI.
Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday that the executive order is the White House’s backup plan should Congress fail to pass a state AI law moratorium, this time via the upcoming reauthorization of the National Defense Authorization Act — a bill that absolutely must pass in order for the government to fund its national security apparatus.
Earlier this year, Congress attempted to slip a moratorium into a draft of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that laid out the spending for his second-term agenda, but it failed after a bipartisan group of senators voiced opposition to the act. Earlier this week, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Punchbowl News that Congress was considering a second run at a moratorium by attaching it to the NDAA.
But just like the Big Beautiful Bill fight, a moratorium buried inside the NDAA’s passage might run into opposition particularly if the punishment is the same: the withholding of rural broadband funding. “The real question is, how big of a grant does it take to put pressure on state lawmakers to change their AI regulations?” Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute who had initiated the concept of an AI moratorium, told The Verge. “This came up in the previous moratorium fight and some people worried that California would just ignore BEAD-related budget threats, for example. It might take multiple budget revocations or limitations to really put pressure on a state as big as California.”
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I’ve recommended several OLED gaming monitors to readers over the years, and I’ve finally taken my own advice to buy one. Alienware’s new 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED has all the features that I want and a low $350 price that was too tempting to ignore.
The AW2726DM model has five things that make it stand out for the price: a 1440p QD-OLED screen with lush contrast, a fast 240Hz refresh rate, a semi-glossy screen coating to enhance details, a low-profile design without flashy RGB LEDs, and a great warranty (three years with coverage for burn-in).
I’ve been using Alienware’s new monitor for a couple days, and I’ve already spent hours with it playing Marathon. It was my first opportunity to see Bungie’s new first-person extraction shooter in its full HDR glory, and I can never go back. Switching on HDR wasn’t automatic, though it already looked so much better than my IPS panel without being activated.
Enabling it transformed how Marathon looked for the better, but made everything else about the OS look pretty washed-out. It’s a Windows issue, not an Alienware issue. It’s easy to enable HDR every time I launch a game and disable it afterward with the Windows + Alt + B keyboard shortcut, but unfortunately triggers HDR for all connected displays. This includes my IPS monitor that imbues everything with a terrible gray hue when HDR is on. So, using the system settings is the best way to adjust HDR for just the QD-OLED.
I landed on this QD-OLED after having spent a ton of time researching pricier models. The unanimous takeaway from reviewers was that LG’s Tandem RGB WOLED panels are some of the brightest out there, but also tend to exhibit lousy gray uniformity in dark scenes. QD-OLED monitors, on the other hand, offer slightly better contrast than WOLED and don’t suffer from those same uniformity issues. However, blacks sometimes appear as dark purple in bright rooms on QD-OLED panels, meaning they’re ideal for rooms that don’t have a bunch of light bouncing around.
There’s no perfect choice, and honestly I got tired of doing research, so I jumped in with the cheapest OLED. I’m glad that I did. Shopping for an OLED gaming monitor can be hard, but it can also be this easy. AOC makes a model that’s discounted to $339.99 at the time of publishing, and its specs are comparable.
As expected, the AW2726DM isn’t a cutting-edge monitor. Its QD-OLED panel isn’t as fast or as bright as some other pricier options, and it doesn’t have USB ports for connecting accessories. Considering its low price, it’s easy for me to overlook those omissions. I’d have a much harder time accepting them in a pricier display.
The fact that I mostly use my computer for text-based work at The Verge is what prevented me from upgrading to an OLED monitor. My 1440p IPS monitor is bright, it’s good at showing text clearly, and it has a fast refresh rate for gaming. Alienware’s QD-OLED is less bright, and some might be bothered by how text looks (I have to really squint to see the slight fringing from this QD-OLED’s subpixel layout). But I have a life outside of work, which includes playing a lot of PC games. That’s the slice of myself I bought this monitor for, and I’m so happy I did.
Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
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Michael and Susan Dell surpass $1 billion in donations backing AI-driven hospital project
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Billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, have become the first donors to give more than $1 billion to the University of Texas at Austin, funding a massive new medical research campus and hospital system powered by artificial intelligence.
The couple’s latest investment includes a $750 million gift to help build the UT Dell Medical Center, a planned “AI-native” hospital expected to open in 2030 as part of a more than 300-acre advanced research campus.
University officials said the project will integrate research, clinical care and advanced computing to improve early disease detection, personalize treatment and expand access to care in the rapidly growing Austin region.
The Dells’ support builds on decades of contributions to UT, including funding for its medical school, scholarships and research programs.
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Michael Dell and Susan Dell attend the Breakthrough Prize ceremony as they become the first to donate more than $1 billion to the University of Texas at Austin. ( Craig T Fruchtman/WireImage)
“By bringing together medicine, science and computing in one campus designed for the AI era, UT can create more opportunity, deliver better outcomes, and build a stronger future for communities across Texas and beyond,” Michael Dell and Susan Dell said.
The gift ranks among the largest in the history of higher education, alongside major contributions like Phil Knight’s $2 billion pledge to Oregon Health & Science University and Michael Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion donation to Johns Hopkins University.
The new UT Dell Medical Center will be developed in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center, integrating cancer care into a system designed to connect prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
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The University of Texas at Austin campus at sunset. (iStock)
“We will deliver better outcomes for patients by providing research-driven cancer care that is precise, compassionate and hope-filled,” Peter WT Pisters, president of UT MD Anderson, said.
Officials said the facility will be built from the ground up to incorporate AI, rather than retrofitting older infrastructure — an approach they say could transform how hospitals operate.
Independent experts have cautioned that AI in health care can introduce risks if not carefully validated. A widely cited study published in the journal Science by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago found that a commonly used healthcare algorithm underestimated the needs of Black patients due to biased training data, highlighting broader concerns about equity in AI-driven systems.
The project also includes funding for undergraduate scholarships, student housing and the Texas Advanced Computing Center, where officials are developing one of the nation’s most powerful academic supercomputers.
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Artificial intelligence technology is expected to play a key role in diagnosis and patient care at the planned UT Dell Medical Center. (iStock)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the investment will help position the state as a national leader in healthcare innovation.
“Texas already dominates in technology, energy and business, and now we will further cement our leadership in health care innovation as well,” Abbott said.
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The university said it plans to break ground on the medical center later this year and has launched a broader campaign to raise $10 billion over the next decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SpaceX and Cursor are now working closely together to create the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI.
The combination of Cursor’s leading product and distribution to expert software engineers with SpaceX’s million H100 equivalent Colossus training supercomputer will allow us to build the world’s most useful models.
Cursor has also given SpaceX the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion or pay $10 billion for our work together.
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