The Trump administration plans to use Google Gemini to draft important federal regulations. . This starts at the Department of Transportation, according to interviews with agency officials. Regulations created by the DOT help keep us safe while traveling.
The plan was originally presented to DOT officials last month, with the agency’s attorney Daniel Cohen writing to colleagues about AI’s “potential to revolutionize the way we make rules.” Gregory Zerzan, the agency’s general counsel, said President Donald Trump is “very excited about this initiative” and that the DOT will be “the first agency to fully utilize AI in drafting rules.” This suggests some kind of pilot program, with plans to eventually introduce AI to other departments.
Oddly enough, Zerzan doesn’t seem to be very interested in quality regulation. propublica received a transcript of a meeting in which he declared, “We don’t need perfect rules about XYZ. We don’t even need very good rules about XYZ.” “We hope it’s good enough,” he continued, “and we’re flooding the area.”
Remember, the DOT regulates safety standards for commercial aircraft, along with rules regarding the transportation of hazardous materials and driver qualifications. The agency’s regulations touch on all aspects of transportation safety. Why does the federal government rely on new technology?
The answer is speed. Complex federal regulations can take months to create and revise, but Google Gemini can spit something out in minutes. DOT officials who gave presentations on the program suggested that many parts of these regulations were just “word salad” anyway, and that AI should work just fine.
“It should take less than 20 minutes for Gemini to submit a proposed rule,” Zerzan said. The plan is to shorten the timeline for the development and review of transportation regulations. The department is already using AI to draft previously unpublished Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
Federal agencies have been using AI for years, but not to actually create regulations. It is primarily used for document translation, data analysis, and public comment classification. But Trump is huge. He has announced multiple executive orders and even shared a video of himself dropping what looks like AI-generated feces onto Americans.
Skeptics argue that a large language model like Gemini should not be in charge of drafting complex and consequential regulations that affect millions of everyday Americans. Mistakes can lead to lawsuits and even injury or death.
Mike Horton, the DOT’s former acting chief artificial intelligence officer, said using Gemini to draft regulations is “like having a high school intern write the rules.” He also said agency leaders under the Trump administration “want to rush to break things, but rushing to break things means people get hurt.”
“Just because these tools can generate a lot of words doesn’t mean those words will lead to high-quality government decisions,” said Bridget Dooling, a professor at Ohio State University who studies administrative law. “It’s very tempting to want to know how to use these tools, and I think it makes sense to try them out, but I think they should be done with a healthy dose of skepticism.”
Since President Trump’s second term in office, the DOT has experienced a net loss of more than 4,000 employees. This includes.
