Government by AI? Trump Administration Plans to Write Regulations Using Artificial Intelligence

The Trump Administration is planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) to write federal transportation regulations, according to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) records and agency staffers. The plan was presented to DOT staff in December 2025 at a demonstration of AI’s “potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings.” The demonstration would showcase “exciting new AI tools available to DOT rule writers to help us do our job better and faster.” Discussion of the plan continued among agency leadership in January 2026. Gregory Zerzan, DOT General Counsel, said that President Donald Trump is “very excited about this initiative.” Zerzan seemed to suggest that the DOT was at the vanguard of a broader federal effort, calling the department the “point of the spear” and “the first agency that is fully enabled to use AI to draft rules.” Zerzan appeared interested mainly in the quantity of regulations that AI could produce, not their quality. “We don’t need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don’t even need a very good rule on XYZ,” he said. “We want good enough.” Zerzan added, “We’re flooding the zone.”