Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, WHITE HOUSE NEWS—New executive order wants to prevent ‘woke AI’ in the federal government, (Jul 24, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

According to the EO, when “ideological biases or social agendas” such as DEI are “built into AI models, they can distort the quality and accuracy of the output.”

On the same day that the Trump administration announced its AI-related action plan, the White House also released an executive order titled “Preventing Woke AI In the Federal Government,” stating that the federal government “has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.” It states, “Americans will require reliable outputs from AI, but when ideological biases or social agendas are built into AI models, they can distort the quality and accuracy of the output.”

The EO also notes that “[w]hile the Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace, in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.”

DEI is the target again. While the terms “truthfulness” and “accuracy” are not specifically defined within the order (instead it describes the principle of “truth-seeking”), nor is it clear how exactly those considerations will be assessed from the face of the order, it otherwise indicates that what is meant by “ideologies” or “ideological agendas” is strongly geared towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), claiming it is “[o]ne of the most pervasive and destructive of these ideologies.”

It states:

“In the AI context, DEI includes the suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex; manipulation of racial or sexual representation in model outputs; incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism; and discrimination on the basis of race or sex.”

The EO claims some examples of this include when “one major AI model changed the race or sex of historical figures—including the Pope, the Founding Fathers, and Vikings—when prompted for images because it was trained to prioritize DEI requirements at the cost of accuracy” and when another model “refused to produce images celebrating the achievements of white people, even while complying with the same request for people of other races.”

In Section 3, regarding “Unbiased AI Principles,” the order instructs the federal government to procure large language models (LLMs) in accordance with two principles, including “Truth-seeking” and “Ideological Neutrality.” Regarding the former, it states that “LLMs shall prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, and shall acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory.” Regarding the latter, it states that “LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI. Developers shall not intentionally encode partisan or ideological judgments into an LLM’s outputs unless those judgments are prompted by or otherwise readily accessible to the end user.”

OMB and agencies teed up to respond. Regarding implementation, it instructs the OMB Director, “in consultation with the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, the Administrator of General Services, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy,” to issue guidance to agencies on implementation. It also instructs agency heads to include certain information in federal contracts for LLMs and revise existing ones where possible, as well as to, after OMB issues its guidance, adopt procedures to ensure compliance.

Fact sheet. In the accompanying Fact Sheet released by the White House, the president claims that the order “is protecting Americans from biased AI outputs driven by ideologies like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the cost of accuracy.”

Similar to the EO, the fact sheet describes the “unbiased AI principles” as follows: “Truth-seeking means that LLMs shall be truthful and prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, and acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory” and “Ideological neutrality means that LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas like DEI, and that developers will not intentionally encode partisan or ideological judgments into an LLM’s outputs unless those judgments are prompted by or readily accessible to the end user.”

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