WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the U.S. must have one federal standard for regulating artificial intelligence, saying the technology risked being over-regulated if each American state came up with its own standard.

"Overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Growth Engine," Trump said on social media.

"We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes," he posted.

The president said that in the absence of a single federal AI standard, China will "easily catch us in the AI race."

Trump has prioritized winning the AI race against China. Soon after taking office in January for his second term, Trump ordered his administration to produce an AI Action Plan that would make "America the world capital in artificial intelligence" and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion.

The rise of AI has fed a host of concerns including the fear that it could be used to disrupt the democratic process, turbocharge fraud and lead to job losses.

In his social media post on Tuesday, the Republican leader urged lawmakers to put the federal standard in a separate bill or include it in the defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

"Put it in the NDAA, or pass a separate Bill, and nobody will ever be able to compete with America," Trump said.

Trump's post did not provide details on the federal standard that he proposed.