Among the many, many ambitious ideas baked into his AI Action Plan, President Donald Trump wants to inculcate a “try-first” culture for innovation in the U.S.
The plan, released Wednesday, includes a strong push for industries to hurry up with adopting AI — arguing that “many of America’s most critical sectors,” notably health care, have been slow to integrate it into their operations.
And when it comes to the nitty-gritty of how this is supposed to happen, the White House suggests a classic tech-world mechanism: Regulatory sandboxes.
“Sandbox” is a term that gets thrown around a lot in tech, usually referring to a closed environment to test software. When talking about policy, a sandbox is a little different: It essentially gives companies a temporary hall pass on pre-existing regulations — like those for medical devices or data privacy — to pilot new technologies to the public.
The idea is that, based on data collected during the trial period, companies can adjust their product designs, and governments can tailor their technology regulations.
Federal agencies have previously implemented sandboxes for emerging tech, most notably in financial services. The action plan calls on the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies to establish similar programs for AI — though it’s unclear where the funding will come from.
Sandboxes for AI systems have already popped up in various states. Last year, Utah enacted a law that has allowed companies to run some tryouts: The ElizaChat platform got approval for a 12-month trial of mental health chatbots, and a firm called Dentacor was allowed to test AI-enabled radiograph diagnostic tools. Texas signed similar legislation into law in June, as did Delaware on Wednesday.
To many free-marketers, sandboxes can achieve multiple aims — developing technology, and also putting pressure on regulations to adapt. “Just because we’ve been regulating one way for a long, long time doesn’t mean we always have to,” Adam Thierer, senior fellow at the R Street Institute, told DFD. “We can try to find ways to innovate within boundaries – that’s what sandboxes are.”
Others are skeptical of the whole argument that somehow industry is slow-rolling AI, and needs a government-sanctioned space to try things out. “Companies aren’t held back by lack of permission to test AI,” said Lexi Reese, a former Google VP who ran for Congress in California on a tech-centric platform in 2023. “They’re already deploying it without oversight.”
