Trump Mandates “Non-Woke” AI for Federal Contracts

New Executive Order Targets Ideological Bias in AI Development

Tech companies seeking to supply artificial intelligence to the U.S. federal government now face a significant new compliance challenge: demonstrating their AI chatbots are not “woke.” This directive, part of a broader strategy to secure American AI dominance, aims to reshape the ideological landscape of AI tools used across government functions.

Shaping AI’s Ideological Stance

President Donald Trump‘s administration has issued an executive order explicitly focused on preventing what it terms “woke AI” within federal agencies. This marks the first instance of the U.S. government attempting to steer the ideological orientation of artificial intelligence systems. Major AI providers, including Google and Microsoft, have yet to issue official statements regarding this new mandate, which is currently undergoing a review period before potentially being integrated into procurement regulations.

While the broader goals of the administration’s AI strategy have generally been met with a positive reception from the tech sector, this specific order thrusts companies into a contentious cultural debate. The requirement forces them to navigate or actively engage in a conflict over the perceived ideological leanings of their AI technologies.

“It will have massive influence in the industry right now,” especially as tech companies are already capitulating to other Trump administration directives.

—Alejandra Montoya-Boyer, Senior Director, The Leadership Conference’s Center for Civil Rights and Technology

Civil rights advocates express concern that the order could undermine efforts to address inherent biases in AI. As Montoya-Boyer stated, “First off, there’s no such thing as woke AI. There’s AI technology that discriminates and then there’s AI technology that actually works for all people.” This perspective suggests that the administration’s framing conflates efforts to mitigate bias with a specific ideological agenda.

The Challenge of AI Neutrality

Molding the behavior of large language models presents significant technical hurdles. These systems are trained on vast datasets derived from the internet, inevitably reflecting the diverse, and often biased, content created by humanity. The randomness inherent in their output further complicates efforts to ensure ideological neutrality.

This endeavor is further complicated by the human element in AI development. From the global workforce of data annotators who refine AI responses to the engineers in Silicon Valley who define their interaction parameters, human choices and biases are embedded within these systems.

The Trump administration’s executive order on preventing “woke AI” in the federal government could force tech companies to choose between their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and securing lucrative government contracts. This move has sparked debate about the role of ideology in AI development.

— World Today News (@WorldTodayNews) July 26, 2025

The directive specifically targets what it labels as “destructive” ideologies of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including concepts like critical race theory and systemic racism, which critics argue are being intentionally encoded into AI models.

Comparisons to International AI Governance

The new U.S. policy has drawn comparisons to China’s more direct regulatory approach to AI. Beijing mandates that generative AI tools align with the core values of the ruling Communist Party, often requiring audits and pre-approval of AI models to filter out content deemed objectionable, such as references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

In contrast, Trump‘s order adopts a less direct approach, relying on companies to disclose internal policies guiding AI behavior to demonstrate ideological neutrality. Experts suggest this method leverages federal contracts as leverage, potentially encouraging self-censorship within the tech industry to maintain government business.

The emphasis on “truth-seeking” AI echoes sentiments expressed by figures like Elon Musk, whose xAI company positions its Grok chatbot with a similar mission. However, the practical implications for companies like xAI, which recently secured a significant defense contract following controversy over Grok’s antisemitic commentary, remain to be seen.

Industry Reactions and Future Implications

Reactions from the tech industry have been largely cautious. OpenAI indicated it is awaiting further guidance but expressed confidence that its efforts to make ChatGPT objective already align with the directive. Microsoft declined to comment on the order.

The underlying ideas for this order have circulated for over a year among influential venture capitalists and Trump‘s AI advisors, notably stemming from controversies surrounding Google’s Gemini AI image generator. The tool’s initial release included historically inaccurate depictions, such as generating images of diverse individuals for prompts like “American Founding Fathers,” which Google later addressed as an attempt to counter existing racial biases in AI systems.

Marc Andreessen, a prominent venture capitalist and Trump advisor, claimed these discrepancies were intentional, suggesting that engineers embedded specific political agendas into the AI. The order’s drafting reportedly involved input from conservative strategists known for their activism against DEI initiatives.

“When they asked me how to define ‘woke,’ I said there’s only one person to call: Chris Rufo. And now it’s law: the federal government will not be buying WokeAI.”

—David Sacks, AI Advisor to Trump, on X

While some critics of excessive DEI promotion acknowledge potential issues with previous AI implementations, they also voice concerns about the precedent set by government attempts to regulate AI’s perceived politics. Experts like Ryan Hauser from the Mercatus Center argue that achieving true ideological neutrality in AI is an unworkable goal, potentially leading to dynamic content shifts based on political pressures.

As of July 2025, approximately 64% of U.S. adults report seeing AI-generated content online, highlighting the increasing ubiquity of these technologies in daily life and the potential impact of such governmental directives on their development and deployment (Pew Research Center, 2024).