United States stack
The United States has no AI law either.
Executive orders, one voluntary framework, and old statutes doing new work.
84 NODES · 100 RELATIONS · 30 INSTRUMENTS · 12 AGENCIES · 22 BINDING · 42 BINDING SECTORAL · VERIFIED 2026-08-18
The short answer
The United States has no comprehensive federal AI statute. This map shows the federal stack: executive orders, OMB memoranda, the voluntary NIST AI RMF, and the old statutes that actually bind, each with its official source.
Legal force, how to read
Binding22
Binding law. It applies to everyone in scope, whether or not anyone points at it.
Binding, sectoral42
Binding, but only for a defined population: one regulated sector, or the federal government and the vendors it buys from.
Supervisory expectation
Not law. It is what your supervisor examines you against, which is not the same as optional.
Consultation4
Proposed, not final. Read it, plan for it, and do not treat it as settled.
Guidance16
Voluntary guidance. Best practice, not obligation, until a contract or a regulator cites it.
Standard
A voluntary standard. It becomes an obligation the moment a contract or a regulator cites it.
Emerging
Not in force yet. Expected, and not something you can be held to today.
84 of 84 nodes shown
84 nodes, 94 edges
Drag to pan. Ctrl or Cmd plus scroll to zoom. Tab to move between nodes, Enter to open. Dashed amber edge means GAGE analysis, not an official mapping.
Which instruments can actually bind me?
Federal Trade Commission Act, Section 5
Prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce. Technology neutral and already in force, it is the general purpose hook for AI claims, AI products and AI driven harm.
TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12)
Signed 19 May 2025. The only federal statute to date that regulates AI generated content directly. Criminal provisions plus a platform notice and removal duty enforced by the FTC.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The binding floor under every AI hiring tool used in the United States. An employer is liable for a discriminatory selection procedure it uses, including one built and scored by a vendor.
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
Binding on employers using AI assessments. Two live exposures: screening out a qualified applicant with a disability, and failing to offer an alternative format on request.
Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B
The binding floor under AI credit decisioning. Adverse action notices must state the actual principal reasons, which is the requirement that makes an unexplainable model a legal problem rather than a technical one.
Executive Order 14110: Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence
The Biden administration's comprehensive AI executive order. Revoked on the first day of the second Trump administration. Listed here because compliance programmes built against it in 2024 are now built against nothing.
Executive Order 14148: Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions
Revoked EO 14110 along with a long list of other orders. The single act that reset federal AI policy.
Executive Order 14179: Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence
The replacement policy. Directs an AI action plan and the revision of the OMB memoranda. Everything OMB issued in April 2025 flows from this order.
Executive Order 14277: Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth
Creates a White House Task Force on AI Education, an AI presidential challenge, and directs agencies toward AI literacy in K to 12 and teacher training.
Who issues what
The White House (Executive Office of the President)
Issues the executive orders that carry current US federal AI policy. Executive orders direct the executive branch; they are not statutes and do not by themselves bind private companies, except where they flow through federal procurement.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Turns AI executive orders into requirements every executive branch agency must follow, through numbered memoranda. M-25-21 governs federal use of AI; M-25-22 governs federal acquisition of it.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Publishes the voluntary AI Risk Management Framework and its profiles. NIST writes no binding rules for AI; its output becomes obligation only when a contract, a regulator or a state statute cites it.
Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), NIST
The federal government's frontier model evaluation body, housed at NIST. Runs voluntary model evaluations with frontier labs and, since February 2026, the AI Agent Standards Initiative.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The closest thing the United States has to a general purpose AI regulator, using Section 5 of the FTC Act against deceptive or unfair AI conduct. No AI specific statute is required for an FTC case.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Enforces Title VII, the ADA and the ADEA against discriminatory employment decisions, including decisions made by AI tools. Its AI specific guidance documents were removed from its website in January 2025; the statutes they interpreted did not change.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Enforces ECOA and the Fair Credit Reporting Act against lenders, including where credit decisions are made by algorithms. Withdrew its two AI relevant circulars in May 2025; ECOA and Regulation B still bind.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Regulates AI enabled medical devices through the existing device pathways. FDA guidance documents are expressly non binding; the underlying device requirements are not.
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Prosecutes federal crimes committed with AI, and since January 2026 runs the AI Litigation Task Force created to challenge state AI laws.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), DHS
Owns the federal civilian cybersecurity directives that now carry AI specific obligations, and issues the joint guidance on securing AI systems.
United States Congress
Has enacted no comprehensive AI statute. One narrow AI content law is in force (the TAKE IT DOWN Act) and the White House asked Congress in March 2026 to pass a preemptive federal framework.
The states, and their attorneys general
The layer where most binding US AI obligation actually sits today. Covered in full by the 50-State AI Law Atlas, not restated here.
Every entry on this map
The whole dataset as text, grouped by legal force, heaviest first. Each entry has its own page with the source, the verified date and everything it connects to.
Binding law. It applies to everyone in scope, whether or not anyone points at it.
22- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
- Department of Justice (DOJ)
- United States Congress
- The states, and their attorneys general
- Federal Trade Commission Act, Section 5
- Do not overstate what your AI does
- Do not sell a tool whose foreseeable use is deception
- Operation AI Comply: the FTC's first AI enforcement sweep
- The Rite Aid order: what an FTC AI remedy looks like
- TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12)
- 48 hour removal duty for covered platforms
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures
- EEOC removes its AI guidance, January 2025Withdrawn
- Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B
- CFPB withdraws its two AI circulars, May 2025Withdrawn
- AI in Government Act of 2020 and the Advancing American AI Act
- Where the binding AI obligations actually are: the states
- The United States has no comprehensive AI statute
Binding, but only for a defined population: one regulated sector, or the federal government and the vendors it buys from.
42- The White House (Executive Office of the President)
- Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), DHS
- Executive Order 14110: Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial IntelligenceSuperseded
- Executive Order 14148: Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions
- Executive Order 14179: Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence
- Executive Order 14277: Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth
- Executive Order 14318: Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure
- Executive Order 14319: Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government
- Executive Order 14320: Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack
- Executive Order 14355: Unlocking Cures for Pediatric Cancer With Artificial Intelligence
- Executive Order 14363: Launching the Genesis Mission
- Executive Order 14365: Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence
- Executive Order 14409: Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security
- Section 2: the stated policy
- Revise the OMB AI memoranda
- The Unbiased AI Principles
- Write the principles into LLM contracts
- Section 3: the AI Litigation Task Force
- Section 4: Commerce names the onerous state laws
- Section 5: broadband money as leverage
- Section 6: an FCC reporting standard
- Section 7: the FTC deception theory
- Section 8: ask Congress for the real thing
- DOJ announces the AI Litigation Task Force, January 2026
- DOJ intervenes against the Colorado AI Act
- Section 2(d): the AI cybersecurity clearinghouse
- Section 3: covered frontier models
- Section 3: the explicit bar on licensing
- Section 4: criminal enforcement against AI enabled crime
- OMB M-25-21: Accelerating Federal Use of AI through Innovation, Governance, and Public Trust
- Every agency identifies a Chief AI Officer
- Each CFO Act agency publishes an AI strategy
- Annual public AI use case inventory
- Minimum risk management practices for high impact AI
- National Security Systems are out of scope
- OMB M-25-22: Driving Efficient Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence in Government
- Foster a competitive American AI marketplace
- Track performance and manage risk
- Buy AI with a cross functional team
- Executive Order 13960: Promoting the Use of Trustworthy AI in the Federal Government
Proposed, not final. Read it, plan for it, and do not treat it as settled.
4- National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence: Legislative RecommendationsConsultation
- AI RMF Profile for Trustworthy AI in Critical Infrastructure (concept note)Consultation
- FTC proposed policy statement on the suppression of accuracy in AI systemsConsultation
- FDA draft guidance: AI enabled device software functionsConsultation
Voluntary guidance. Best practice, not obligation, until a contract or a regulator cites it.
16- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), NIST
- America's AI Action Plan
- Pillar I: Accelerate AI innovation
- Pillar II: Build American AI infrastructure
- Pillar III: Lead in international AI diplomacy and security
- NIST AI Risk Management Framework 1.0
- Govern: an AI RMF core function
- Map: an AI RMF core function
- Measure: an AI RMF core function
- Manage: an AI RMF core function
- NIST AI 600-1: Generative AI Profile
- Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI)
- The AI Agent Standards Initiative
- FDA guidance: Predetermined Change Control Plans for AI enabled devices
- CISA guidance on securing AI systems