DoorDash announced on Thursday that it’s launching a new AI chatbot that lets users order food and groceries with text prompts and photos in its latest AI push.

The chatbot, called “Ask DoorDash,” allows users to search the app for what they’re looking for in their own words instead of having to scroll through restaurants and stores to build a cart. You can tell the chatbot what you’re in the mood for, share a recipe link to find the items, or describe the reservation you’re looking for.

“Traditional search works best when you know the exact restaurant or table you’re looking for,” DoorDash wrote in the blog post. “Ask DoorDash is designed for the moments when you don’t.”

Food delivery apps and tech giants are betting that AI can help make shopping more conversational and personalized, as companies race to make AI assistants a standard part of everyday life. In February, Uber Easts launched an AI-powered “Cart Assistant,” while Instacart has rolled out an AI shopping assistant that grocers can offer to their customers.

DoorDash’s app can build your grocery cart based on a photo from a cookbook, a picture of your grocery list, or a recipe. DoorDash will then add all the items and their correct quantities to your cart. It will prompt users to check if they already have staples like sugar and butter, so they don’t buy something they already have.

You can also ask the chatbot to reorder your last grocery cart or suggest new items based on your previous orders, DoorDash says.

As for ordering food, you can tell the chatbot that you want a “filling dinner for a family of 4.” The app will then surface restaurants alongside a personalized blurb explaining why it matches your search. You can narrow the results even further with a query like, “Show me kid-friendly vegetarian spots with mild options.”

Once you select a place, you can ask DoorDash to build a cart with suggestions based on your dietary preferences, budget, group size, or past orders.

With Ask DoorDash for Reservations, users can ask the chatbot to find a “table for two downtown for a date-night dinner around 8 PM.” The app will then surface restaurants with availability. You can refine the results further by asking for something a little more intimate.

The chatbot is rolling out on iOS in select regions for restaurant search and grocery shopping, and within DoorDash Reservations. It will reach more users across the U.S. in the coming weeks, the company says.

President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday establishing a voluntary framework for government review of frontier AI models before public release, ending weeks of internal White House conflict over how aggressively to regulate the technology. The order, titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security,” was signed privately without the usual livestream or public ceremony, a contrast with the fanfare that typically accompanies presidential AI announcements.

The final version is substantially narrower than the draft Trump rejected on 21 May, when he scrapped a planned signing ceremony over concerns that the order “could dull America’s edge on AI technology.” The original draft proposed a 90-day mandatory pre-release review period and would have given the government formal evaluation authority over frontier models. The signed version asks companies to voluntarily submit models 30 days before release and participate in a collaborative framework rather than submitting to mandatory testing.

What the order does

The executive order establishes three main mechanisms. First, a voluntary pre-release review framework in which AI developers can engage the government to determine whether models under development qualify as “covered frontier models,” provide access for up to 30 days before planned release, and collaborate on selecting “trusted partners” for early access. The framework is explicitly voluntary, meaning companies can decline to participate without penalty.

Second, the order creates an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse within 30 days, coordinated by the Treasury Secretary, the National Cyber Director, the NSA, and CISA. The clearinghouse will scan for software vulnerabilities, validate discoveries, and coordinate remediation and patch distribution, a direct response to the Mythos crisis that demonstrated how AI-discovered vulnerabilities can outpace existing disclosure and patching processes.

Third, federal agencies are directed to develop benchmarks for assessing AI models’ cybersecurity capabilities and to strengthen the government’s own security defences against AI-enabled threats. The order also addresses AI safety research, though the specific provisions are less prescriptive than what the original draft contained.

What was cut

The differences between the scrapped draft and the signed order reflect the victory of the pro-industry faction within the White House. The 90-day mandatory review was reduced to a 30-day voluntary window. The formal government evaluation authority was replaced with a collaborative framework. The reporting requirements for companies developing powerful models, which would have echoed provisions in Biden’s repealed AI executive order, were softened to avoid what industry allies characterised as regulatory overreach.

Silicon Valley’s objections to the original draft were decisive. AI companies argued that mandatory pre-release testing would slow American innovation, create a competitive disadvantage relative to Chinese firms facing no equivalent requirements, and establish a precedent for government gatekeeping of technology deployment. The signed order addresses those concerns by making participation voluntary and framing the government’s role as collaborative rather than regulatory.

The gap it leaves

The voluntary framework means the order’s effectiveness depends entirely on whether AI companies choose to participate. Companies already engaged in pre-release testing with CAISI, including Google, Microsoft, and xAI, may continue or expand that cooperation. Companies that view government review as commercially disadvantageous or that are racing to ship products can simply opt out.

The EU’s AI Act, entering full enforcement in August, provides a stark contrast: mandatory requirements, statutory authority, and penalties for non-compliance. The Trump order establishes norms and creates institutional infrastructure (the cybersecurity clearinghouse, the benchmark development process) but relies on goodwill rather than obligation.

For the White House, the quiet signing may be the point. The order gives the administration a policy document it can reference when asked about AI oversight, creates structures that could be strengthened later, and avoids a public confrontation with an AI industry whose leaders are among the administration’s most visible supporters. Whether a voluntary framework is adequate for a technology that can discover 10,000 zero-day vulnerabilities in a month is the question the order deliberately leaves unanswered.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday designed to give the government a chance to review powerful AI models before they are released. 

The order asks certain AI companies to voluntarily submit their new models to the government for testing or evaluation 30 days before releasing the products to the public. A previous draft of the order had called for a voluntary review up to 90 days in advance, though AI industry insiders had pushed for something closer to a two-week window.

Trump had been slated to sign the more demanding version of the order in late May, but delayed after industry pushback, including from venture capitalist and former White House AI czar David Sacks. The president said at the time that he didn’t want to do anything to get in AI firms’ way of leading against China. 

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models,” reads the order, published Tuesday. 

Trump had planned to sign the EO with a bevy of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs in attendance, but ended up signing the current version privately.

In addition to the voluntary governmental AI model review, the EO directs the Department of Justice to treat crimes like AI-assisted hacking and unauthorized access as a high-priority enforcement area. 

This isn’t the president’s first EO on AI. Last December, Trump signed an order directing the development of “one rulebook,” or a national AI policy framework, intended to preempt state AI laws.