The Trump admin suddenly wants to regulate AI models

The New York Times had a story a few days ago about the Trump administration prepping an executive order regulating AI models:

The administration is discussing an executive order to create an A.I. working group that would bring together tech executives and government officials to examine potential oversight procedures, according to U.S. officials, who declined to be identified in order to discuss deliberations over sensitive policies. Among the potential plans is a formal government review process for new A.I. models.

The working group is likely to consider a number of oversight approaches, officials said. But a review process could be similar to one being developed in Britain, which has assigned several government bodies to ensure that A.I. models meet certain safety standards, people in the tech industry and the administration said.

In response to this report, Ben Thompson wrote:

The […] administration is not embracing uncertainty: it is operating from an assumption that AI is dangerous, despite the fact that many of the listed harms, like learning how to build a bomb or synthesize dangerous chemicals or conduct cyber attacks, are already trivially accomplished on today’s Internet. What is completely lacking is anything other than the briefest of hand waves at AI’s potential upside.

As well as:

The […] administration is arrogantly insisting that it ought have a role in dictating the outcomes of an innovation that few if any of its members understand, and almost certainly could not invent. There is, to be sure, a role for oversight and regulation, but that is a blunt instrument best applied after the invention, like an editor.

Although hold on a second, those posts are from November 1, 2023 when then President Biden signed an eerily similar executive order.

For the record, I was relatively neutral on this sort of government oversight in 2023, not having a strong feeling either way. And on the face of it, I don't have a huge problem with this, even though I very much do not like this administration. The fun question for me will be whether Ben Thompson continues what I think is his tendency, which is to loudly voice when he disagrees with Democrats and be quiet when he disagrees with Republicans, specifically Trump.