White House AI order intensifies focus on bias

Republican leaders have long accused AI developers of left-leaning bias. In March, House Republicans issued subpoenas to sixteen technology companies, including OpenAI, Alphabet, and Microsoft, seeking evidence of whether the Biden administration pressured them to “censor lawful speech” in AI models, as reported by the Verge. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently launched an investigation into leading AI platforms, claiming their chatbots produced “deeply misleading” responses about Donald Trump when asked to rank recent presidents on antisemitism.

On 23 July 2025, the White House released an action plan requiring federal contractors to ensure AI models are “objective and free from top-down ideological bias.” This order targets companies with major DOD and agency contracts, given billions spent on AI integration by federal bodies, as reported by the New York Times.

Legal experts warn that efforts to dictate “neutral” AI outputs may clash with the First Amendment. “Pressuring AI companies through the federal procurement process is necessary to stop AI developers from putting their thumbs on the scale,” administration officials argue, although critics describe the move as “jawboning,” designed less to resolve bias than to intimidate suppliers.

Meanwhile, defining and measuring AI “neutrality” remains a technical and philosophical challenge, as AI chatbots generate probabilistic, not deterministic, responses.