Trump’s AI-ification of the Rulemaking Process
By Elizabeth "Bitsy" Skerry
The Trump administration is going all-in on AI in the federal rulemaking process and the news is alarming. The administration plans to deploy AI in rule-writing, which raises grave concerns.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced plans to use Google Gemini to write regulations. DOT’s general counsel, Gregory Zerzan, says the DOT is “the first agency that is fully enabled to use AI to draft rules,” and that DOT doesn’t “need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don’t even need a very good rule on XYZ.”
This alarming admission poses serious safety concerns about the regulations that will be promulgated by DOT moving forward. Using Google Gemini, the agency will be able to generate a proposed rule in just minutes or seconds.
It’s unsettling to imagine the deficiencies that could result in an AI-generated rule crafted for DOT by Google Gemini, or by any agency using any existing LLM. An agency tasked with ensuring Americans’ safety on our streets and in the skies needs to move carefully in rulemaking. Lives are at stake.
According to one DOT employee, a proofread of Google Gemini’s creation by the employees at DOT who are responsible for writing rules will be the only job for these employees moving forward. AI is known to “hallucinate” or produce errors. This means regulations drafted by Google Gemini or other LLMs could be riddled with false or fabricated information that was never fact-checked.
Of equal concern, the Trump administration reportedly plans to unveil a new deregulatory AI tool called SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder (SweetREX DAIP) to slash existing regulations. This all-in-one deregulatory AI tool could be used to identify regulations to eliminate, draft a notice of proposed rulemaking and a direct final rule, analyze hundreds of thousands of public comments, and draft a final rule – with human oversight or approval at the agency’s discretion. SweetREX would identify regulations to slash based on certain criteria derived from President Trump’s direction to agencies to rescind regulations that his agency heads deem “unlawful.” There’s nothing “sweet” about that.
SweetREX was first discussed on an OMB video call in August 2025 and was still in development at the time. The purpose of SweetREX is to help bring to fruition the goals outlined in President Trump’s “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” executive order. It was created by a DOGE associate named Christopher Sweet and pitched to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with a plan for rollout across other federal agencies. It is unclear whether SweetREX had been used by DOGE throughout the past year as part of its efforts to dismantle the government and deregulate. HUD has not commented on whether SweetREX was deployed and the extent of DOGE’s involvement with their agency.
Regulations save lives and provide vast public benefits. That’s why Public Citizen opposes the unfettered use of AI in the federal regulatory process, especially to deregulate. Read our proposed guardrails on AI in rulemaking designed to prevent these kinds of abuses.