President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to bolster the use of artificial intelligence in finding cancer cures for kids.
“We’re going to defeat cancer once and for all,” Trump said at a ceremony with health officials and pediatric cancer survivors.
But even as his administration is supporting new technologies to find cures, it is also repealing regulations that are designed to prevent people from getting cancer in the first place. EPA has targeted 12 rules that reduce cancer-causing chemicals like benzene, heavy metals and soot from being released into the nation’s air and water.
The broad effort to weaken or cancel those regulations is necessary, administration officials say, to increase electricity derived from fossil fuels to help power AI data centers — the same technology hubs that are seeking cures for cancer. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote last week that “through strategic deregulation” his agency “is helping ensure that America doesn’t just participate in the AI revolution — we lead it.”
