Trump's AI Action Plan: Deregulation, Infrastructure, and the Battle Against 'Woke' AI

White House unveils sweeping plan to "win" global AI race through deregulation

On Wednesday, the White House released "Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan," a 25-page document that outlines the Trump administration's strategy to "maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance" in AI through deregulation, infrastructure investment, and international partnerships. But critics are already taking aim at the plan, saying it's doing Big Tech a big favor. Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Michael J. Kratsios and Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David O. Sacks crafted the plan, which frames AI development as a race the US must win against global competitors, particularly China. The document describes AI as the catalyst for "an industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance -- all at once." It calls for removing regulatory barriers that the administration says hamper private sector innovation. The plan explicitly reverses several Biden-era policies, including Executive Order 14110 on AI model safety measures, which President Trump rescinded on his first day in office during his second term. "Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits," the document states, comparing the current competition to the space race of the 1960s. The plan's three pillars -- innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy -- each include policy recommendations for accelerating AI adoption while preventing countries the Trump administration perceives as adversaries from accessing American technology. The plan calls for significant changes to how the federal government approaches AI regulation. It directs the Office of Management and Budget to work with federal agencies to identify and revise regulations that "unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment." The document also instructs the Federal Trade Commission to review all investigations started under the previous administration to ensure they don't "advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation." Trump's plan was not welcomed by everyone. J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen, in a statement provided to Ars, criticized Trump as giving "sweetheart deals" to tech companies that would cause "electricity bills to rise to subsidize discounted power for massive AI data centers." Infrastructure demands and energy requirements Trump's new AI plan tackles infrastructure head-on, stating that "AI is the first digital service in modern life that challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today." To meet this demand, it proposes streamlining environmental permitting for data centers through new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) exemptions, making federal lands available for construction and modernizing the power grid -- all while explicitly rejecting "radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape." The document embraces what it calls a "Build, Baby, Build!" approach -- echoing a Trump campaign slogan -- and promises to restore semiconductor manufacturing through the CHIPS Program Office, though stripped of "extraneous policy requirements." On the technology front, the plan directs Commerce to revise NIST's AI Risk Management Framework to "eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." Federal procurement would favor AI developers whose systems are "objective and free from top-down ideological bias." The document strongly backs open source AI models and calls for exporting American AI technology to allies while blocking administration-labeled adversaries like China. Security proposals include high-security military data centers and warnings that advanced AI systems "may pose novel national security risks" in cyberattacks and weapons development. Critics respond with "People's AI Action Plan" Before the White House unveiled its plan, more than 90 organizations launched a competing "People's AI Action Plan" on Tuesday, characterizing the Trump administration's approach as "a massive handout to the tech industry" that prioritizes corporate interests over public welfare. The coalition includes labor unions, environmental justice groups, and consumer protection nonprofits. "The White House AI Action Plan is written by Big Tech interests invested in advancing AI that's used on us, not by us," said Sarah Myers West and Amba Kak, co-executive directors of the AI Now Institute, which helped organize the statement. "We can't let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink -- all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI," the coalition's statement reads. The coalition's concerns center on several key issues: the environmental impact of data centers, potential job displacement, and the lack of meaningful safety standards. "The rollout of the technology is acting in ways that push down wages, that devalue our work, that are harming our environment and affecting community health," West told The Washington Post. "Nurses are opposed to our patients being used as guinea pigs for unregulated and untested AI technology," said Cathy Kennedy, RN, National Nurses United president, in the coalition's announcement. "We support AI when it is used to improve our ability to care for our patients, not when it is used by industry to cut labor costs and increase profits at the expense of patients." The White House dismissed these concerns. "This spirit of fear is exactly how China made significant progress under the Biden Administration," OSTP spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita told The Washington Post. "Artificial intelligence is at the center of our national security and economic interests. Putting America First means ensuring that emerging technologies and innovation can flourish here, at home -- not with our foreign adversaries."

Trump is set to unveil his AI roadmap: Here's what to know | TechCrunch

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to unveil his long-awaited AI Action Plan at a Washington D.C. event Wednesday hosted by Silicon Valley insiders -- his first major address concerning artificial intelligence since he took office for the second time in January. The AI Action Plan should provide a roadmap of the Trump administration's strategies, priorities, and concerns around AI -- likely a technology that will come to define the 47th President's term. The plan is effectively a replacement for the Biden AI executive order, the previous administration's AI strategy which placed a large focus on mandating AI companies to submit safety and security reports, and trying to limit racial or otherwise discriminatory bias in frontier AI models. Trump repealed Biden's order within days of his inauguration, arguing that its requirements could be onerous for AI companies, and may hinder American innovation. In its first six months, the Trump Administration has broadly encouraged efforts to accelerate the development and distribution of American AI technology. Trump helped OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announce their multi-billion dollar Stargate data center project, and the President peeled back restrictions on Nvidia selling its AI chips around the globe. At the same time, Trump's AI czar David Sacks has picked a fight with technology companies over "woke" AI, claiming that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are supposedly instilling left-leaning values into their AI chatbots and censoring conservative viewpoints. Some are already pushing back on Trump's AI Action plan for allegedly putting corporate interests ahead of the public. On Tuesday, a group of more than 90 organizations including labor, environmental justice, and consumer protection non-profits published an open letter called the People's AI Action Plan. This puts forth a series of AI policies that claim to put the interests of American citizens first, and counter what Trump is expected to announce. "We can't let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' well-being," the group said in a statement to TechCrunch that acknowledged the energy needs of Silicon Valley's AI data centers. Trump's AI Action Plan should advance his administration's agenda more explicitly, but exactly how remains unclear. Trump is expected to share more details about the plan at the "Winning the AI Race" summit, an event hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All In podcast, which Sacks co-hosts when he's not serving as a government official or venture capitalist. Here's what we know about the AI Action Plan so far. Trump's AI strategy is expected to focus on three pillars -- infrastructure, innovation, and global influence -- according to a report from Time Magazine. For infrastructure, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to overhaul permitting rules to speed up the development of AI data centers. This aims to help AI companies meet with the growing energy needs to train and serve their AI models. However, it's widely expected that the rise of AI data centers -- which suck up immense amounts of energy and water from neighboring communities -- could cause energy shortages by the end of the decade unless there's a rapid increase in energy production. The president's infrastructure pillar is also expected to include a plan to modernize America's electrical grid and add new sources of energy to power these data centers, according to Time. On the innovation front, Trump reportedly plans to use his AI Action Plan to revive the conversation around blocking state AI laws (even though a federal proposition on the issue overwhelmingly failed last month). This is part of an effort to reduce barriers to innovation for American AI companies, but may ultimately block lawmakers from passing meaningful safety and security standards for AI companies. As for the global influence pillar, Trump is expected to put forth a strategy to advance the adoption of American AI models and chips, not just in the U.S., but around the world. Federal officials were spooked by the rise of the DeepSeek, and other Chinese AI labs such as Qwen and Moonshot AI have since become worthy competitors to OpenAI. Trump wants America's technology to be the global standard. To advance its goals, the Trump administration is also expected to sign a series of AI-related executive orders on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post. Some of these orders clear the path for faster data center buildouts, while others encourage the export of American technologies. One of the executive orders Trump is slated to sign Wednesday would crackdown on "woke" AI models, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. The order requires AI companies with federal contracts -- which includes OpenAI, xAI, Google, and Anthropic -- to ensure their AI models have neutral and unbiased language. The crackdown on "woke" AI marks the Republican party's latest attack on Silicon Valley's historically left-leaning crowd. In past years, Republican investigated social media companies for allegedly altering their algorithms to censor conservative voices. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently capitulated to these allegations, and overhauled Facebook and Instagram's content moderation to represent more voices. A key question looming around this executive order is who defines whether AI models are neutral or biased, and how they determine it. Trump has long stated he's an advocate of free speech, so an executive order setting rules around what an AI model can and can't say may seem counterintuitive. That said, a Florida judge recently ruled that AI chatbots are not protected by the First Amendment. In light of this crack down, OpenAI and other AI labs have tried to make their AI chatbots represent more viewpoints. These companies are in the awkward position to generate AI responses that please everyone, while also not spreading extremist viewpoints or misinformation. Elon Musk, once Trump's greatest financial backer whose relationship with the president has recently soured, explicitly started xAI to develop an "anti-woke" AI chatbot, Grok, and combat ChatGPT. However, xAI's effort to create such a chatbot hasn't gone so well. In recent weeks, xAI was forced to apologize repeatedly when its AI chatbot went on antisemitic rants and consulted Musk's personal opinions on hot-button issues. The White House announced in April it had received more than 10,000 public comments from companies, local governments, and nonprofit organizations regarding Trump's AI Action Plan. OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon effectively took the opportunity to submit wishlists of friendly AI policies they'd like to see the Trump administration implement. Many of America's leading AI model developers asked Trump to use his AI Action plan to guarantee that training large language models on copyrighted material would be fair use, and should therefore be allowed. Such a protection could benefit these companies significantly, as many of them are involved in active lawsuits with copyright owners from the music, film, news, and book industries. These publishers have accused AI companies of illegally training on their copyrighted works to make AI models, potentially devaluing their media in the process. Meanwhile, Meta asked Trump to protect open AI models -- which are freely available to download online. By releasing its Llama models openly, Meta has been able to undercut OpenAI and Google's closed offerings. However, Anthropic has raised concerns over whether open AI models could leak powerful technology to bad actors, including China. Other interest groups, including nonprofits such as The Future of Life Institute, used the commenting period to ask the Trump administration to increase investment into AI research efforts outside of commercial entities. The request comes at a time when the Trump administration and DOGE have slashed funding for American universities, many of which have been powerhouses for scientific breakthroughs in recent decades. It seems unlikely that Trump's AI action plan will feature the same safety and security reporting standards that the Biden administration sought to impose. However, polls show that most Americans want AI companies to be held to safety standards. Several state lawmakers are pushing bills that would create safety and security reporting mandates, but they may face opposition from the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers should they contradict Trump's AI Action Plan..

What you may have missed about Trump's AI Action Plan

The White House's AI Action Plan, released last week, is meant to fix that. Many of the points in the plan won't come as a surprise, and you've probably heard of the big ones by now. Trump wants to boost the buildout of data centers by slashing environmental rules; withhold funding from states that pass "burdensome AI regulations"; and contract only with AI companies whose models are "free from top-down ideological bias." But if you dig deeper, certain parts of the plan that didn't pop up in any headlines reveal more about where the administration's AI plans are headed. Here are three of the most important issues to watch. Trump is escalating his fight with the Federal Trade Commission When Americans get scammed, they're supposed to be helped by the Federal Trade Commission. As I wrote last week, the FTC under President Biden increasingly targeted AI companies that overhyped the accuracy of their systems, as well as deployments of AI it found to have harmed consumers. The Trump plan vows to take a fresh look at all the FTC actions under the previous administration as part of an effort to get rid of "onerous" regulation that it claims is hampering AI's development. The administration may even attempt to repeal some of the FTC's actions entirely. This would weaken a major AI watchdog agency, but it's just the latest in the Trump administration's escalating attacks on the FTC. Read more in my story. The White House is very optimistic about AI for science The opening to the AI Action Plan describes a future where AI is doing everything from discovering new materials and drugs to "unraveling ancient scrolls once thought unreadable" to making breakthroughs in science and math. That type of unbounded optimism about AI for scientific discovery echoes what tech companies are promising. Some of that optimism is grounded in reality: AI's role in predicting protein structures has indeed led to material scientific wins (and just last week, Google DeepMind released a new AI meant to help interpret ancient Latin engravings). But the idea that large language models -- essentially very good text prediction machines -- will act as scientists in their own right has less merit so far. Still, the plan shows that the Trump administration wants to award money to labs trying to make it a reality, even as it has worked to slash the funding the National Science Foundation makes available to human scientists, some of whom are now struggling to complete their research.

Trump's AI Action Plan Is a Crusade Against 'Bias' -- and Regulation

On Wednesday, the Trump Administration unveiled its new artificial intelligence action plan geared at keeping US efforts competitive with China. With over 90 policies recommended, it's a wide-ranging document that, if followed, would give Silicon Valley's most powerful companies even more leeway to grow. "We believe we're in an AI race," White House AI czar David Sacks said on a call ahead of the action plan's release. "We want the United States to win that race." The Office of Science and Technology Policy drafted the plan, which focuses on three key "pillars" for AI strategy: accelerating AI innovation, building infrastructure, and leading international diplomacy and security. The report opens by stressing that "AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level." It recommends a series of policies designed to loosen regulations and burdens on the tech companies developing artificial intelligence products, like encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to "evaluate whether state AI regulations interfere with the agency's ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934." "We need to build and maintain vast AI infrastructure and the energy to power it. To do that, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape, as the Administration has done since Inauguration Day," the report reads. "Simply put, we need to 'Build, Baby, Build!'" In addition to releasing this report, President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders later this afternoon that are expected to map onto the priorities outlined in the action plan. AI has been a priority for the past two US administrations, but Trump's second term has been characterized by major calibrations as the sector has exploded in prominence. In October 2023, the Biden Administration introduced an AI Executive Order designed to address numerous risks posed by rapidly advancing AI models. The order focused on issues like the potential for AI models to be used as cybersecurity weapons or to help produce chemical or biological weapons, as well as algorithmic bias. This new action plan explicitly seeks to undo efforts undertaken during the Biden Administration, like reviewing all of the Federal Trade Commission investigations it commenced "to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation." The plan builds on the Trump Administration's previous approach to AI. Shortly after Trump took office, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech at a major AI meeting in Paris where he laid out the new administration's priorities. "We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off, and we'll make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies," Vance said, adding, "we feel strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias, and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship." The AI Action Plan continues this crusade against "woke" AI, recommending that federal procurement guidelines are updated so that only AI companies that "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias" are given contracts.

Trump's Anti-Bias AI Order Is Just More Bias

On November 2, 2022, I attended a Google AI event in New York City. One of the themes was responsible AI. As I listened to executives talk about how they aligned their technology with human values, I realized that the malleability of AI models was a double-edged sword. Models could be tweaked to, say, minimize biases, but also to enforce a specific point of view. Governments could demand manipulation to censor unwelcome facts and promote propaganda. I envisioned this as something that an authoritarian regime like China might employ. In the United States, of course, the Constitution would prevent the government from messing with the outputs of AI models created by private companies. This Wednesday, the Trump administration released its AI manifesto, a far-ranging action plan for one of the most vital issues facing the country -- and even humanity. The plan generally focuses on besting China in the race for AI supremacy. But one part of it seems more in sync with China's playbook. In the name of truth, the US government now wants AI models to adhere to Donald Trump's definition of that word. You won't find that intent plainly stated in the 28-page plan. Instead it says, "It is essential that these systems be built from the ground up with freedom of speech and expression in mind, and that U.S. government policy does not interfere with that objective. We must ensure that free speech flourishes in the era of AI and that AI procured by the Federal government objectively reflects truth rather than social engineering agendas." That's all fine until the last sentence, which raises the question -- truth according to whom? And what exactly is a "social engineering agenda"? We get a clue about this in the very next paragraph, which instructs the Department of Commerce to look at the Biden AI rules and "eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." (Weird uppercase as written in the published plan.) Acknowledging climate change is social engineering? As for truth, in a fact sheet about the plan, the White House says, "LLMs shall be truthful and prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity." Sounds good, but this comes from an administration that limits American history to "uplifting" interpretations, denies climate change, and regards Donald Trump's claims about being America's greatest president as objective truth. Meanwhile, just this week, Trump's Truth Social account reposted an AI video of Obama in jail. In a speech touting the plan in Washington on Wednesday, Trump explained the logic behind the directive: "The American people do not want woke Marxist lunacy in the AI models," he said. Then he signed an executive order entitled "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government." While specifying that the "Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace," it declares that "in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas." Since all the big AI companies are courting government contracts, the order appears to be a backdoor effort to ensure that LLMs in general show fealty to the White House's interpretation of history, sexual identity, and other hot-button issues. In case there's any doubt about what the government regards as a violation, the order spends several paragraphs demonizing AI that supports diversity, calls out racial bias, or values gender equality. Pogo alert -- Trump's executive order banning top-down ideological bias is a blatant exercise in top-down ideological bias. It's up to the companies to determine how to handle these demands. I spoke this week to an OpenAI engineer working on model behavior who told me that the company already strives for neutrality. In a technical sense, they said, meeting government standards like being anti-woke shouldn't be a huge hurdle. But this isn't a technical dispute: It's a constitutional one. If companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google decide to try minimizing racial bias in their LLMs, or make a conscious choice to ensure the models' responses reflect the dangers of climate change, the First Amendment presumably protects those decisions as exercising the "freedom of speech and expression" touted in the AI Action Plan. A government mandate denying government contracts to companies exercising that right is the essence of interference. You might think that the companies building AI would fight back, citing their constitutional rights on this issue. But so far no Big Tech company has publicly objected to the Trump administration's plan. Google celebrated the White House's support of its pet issues, like boosting infrastructure. Anthropic published a positive blog post about the plan, though it complained about the White House's sudden seeming abandonment of strong export controls earlier this month. OpenAI says it is already close to achieving objectivity. Nothing about asserting their own freedom of expression. The reticence is understandable because, overall, the AI Action Plan is a bonanza for AI companies. While the Biden administration mandated scrutiny of Big Tech, Trump's plan is a big fat green light for the industry, which it regards as a partner in the national struggle to beat China. It allows the AI powers to essentially blow past environmental objections when constructing massive data centers. It pledges support for AI research that will flow to the private sector. There's even a provision that limits some federal funds for states that try to regulate AI on their own. That's a consolation prize for a failed portion of the recent budget bill that would have banned state regulation for a decade. For the rest of us, though, the "anti-woke" order is not so easily brushed off. AI is increasingly the medium by which we get our news and information. A founding principle of the United States has been the independence of such channels from government interference. We have seen how the current administration has cowed parent companies of media giants like CBS into apparently compromising their journalistic principles to favor corporate goals. Extending this "anti-woke" agenda to AI models, it's not unreasonable to expect similar accommodations. Senator Edward Markey has written directly to the CEOs of Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta urging them to fight the order. "The details and implementation plan for this executive order remain unclear," he writes, "but it will create significant financial incentives for the Big Tech companies ... to ensure their AI chatbots do not produce speech that would upset the Trump administration." In a statement to me, he said, "Republicans want to use the power of the government to make ChatGPT sound like Fox & Friends." As you might suspect, this view isn't shared by the White House team working on the AI plan. They believe their goal is true neutrality, and that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for AI models that don't reflect unbiased truth. Indeed, the plan itself points a finger at China as an example of what happens when truth is manipulated. It instructs the government to examine frontier models from the People's Republic of China to determine "alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship." Unless the corporate overlords of AI get some backbone, a future evaluation of American frontier models might well reveal lockstep alignment with White House talking points and censorship. But you might not find that out by querying an AI model. Too woke.

Trump's AI Priorities Need to Hit These 5 Marks. I'm Not Holding My Breath

Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology. This week, during a podcast, President Donald Trump is expected to unveil his AI priorities (and an AI Action Plan) for the US. The time is ripe since there's no shortage of problems to sort out, like how to support innovation while protecting Americans' privacy or how to power all those data centers without driving up everyone's power bills. It's all gen AI's fault. What we're likely to get, though, is more of that powerful new tech in more places, with few, if any, new guardrails around it. Just look at how AI-friendly the Trump administration has been so far and how many AI-enthusiast tech executives were standing behind President Trump during his inauguration. But AI is complicated. And generative AI in particular is very much a work in progress. It's promising for sure, making the most of your home's security cameras or taking notes during your work meetings. At the same time, it may fail to identify what year it is, and it struggles with things like math and empathy. With billions of dollars being funneled into its development, the returns, for society, ought to be significant and widely felt. What we need, now, is to make sure that it develops the right way. Trump and AI leaders talk about winning a race with China, but it shouldn't be a race to the bottom. Here are some things I hope to see among the administration's priorities, but I'm not holding my breath. Congress just got done fighting over whether to block states from enforcing their own AI laws and regulations. That measure failed, thanks in part to some Republican senators standing up to their own party leadership. A lot of those state laws are centered on privacy -- how automated systems can use personal information and whether generative AI can duplicate the likeness of famous people. (I'm looking at you, Tennessee, and your law-protecting country music artists.) We can't rely on scattered state laws and rules for this, and we shouldn't have to rely on the courts. The federal government should create some kind of framework to guarantee Americans the right to privacy and personal identity. Otherwise, we'll all end up being deepfaked. Read more: Congress Isn't Stepping Up to Regulate AI. Where Does That Leave Us Now? It takes a lot of computing power to train and run all of those AI models, and keeping all those Nvidia chips powered and cooled requires a ton of electricity. Combine that with the growing electrification of things like home heating and vehicles, and severe weather events made worse by climate change, and you have a perfect storm of new stress on the US electric grid. The good news is that all of those data centers don't have to put a burden on utility customers like you and me. Data centers can be added to the grid with requirements that they participate in demand response programs, sometimes known as virtual power plants -- meaning they go offline when the whole system is most under stress. On the hottest days of summer, when there isn't enough power to go around for all the air conditioners, our policymakers should ensure that no people suffer because we couldn't pause the computers that train chatbots. AI executives are already talking about the massive disruption they expect the technology will cause for workers. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in May that it could wipe out half of entry-level white collar jobs in the next few years. Companies like Shopify and Duolingo have said they're going "AI-first." Whether the technology can do all those jobs is irrelevant -- CEOs and executives think it can, and they decide who stays employed and who doesn't. The potential sudden unemployment of thousands or millions of Americans at once is a crisis-in-waiting, and the administration should be thinking about it now. As we saw in the early days of the COVID pandemic five years ago, many states' unemployment systems are woefully unprepared for a crisis. A retooling of the economy could take much longer than it took for the country to rebound from the pandemic, and a failure to prepare could be devastating. Companies are eagerly selling the idea that AI is a gamechanger in every aspect of our lives, and while it certainly has its uses, not every bit of hype has merit. You can't stop marketing folks from trying to sell their products, but the administration can and should be a wise steward of public resources and the public interest. I expect we'll see proposals for new ways to deploy AI in government service. But this technology isn't magic, and it serves nobody (except whoever sold the AI) to give it jobs that then have to be redone by humans. President Trump has spent a decade promising to make America great again. Going all-in on AI might sound like a way to do that, but this technology is still in its infancy, and it's already been responsible for misinformation, environmental issues and the slopification of social media. Policies that steer us toward a society where AI displaces valuable human work and undermines our social fabric won't make this country any better; they'll just make everything worse.

Trump's AI Action Plan Is Here. These Are the Top 5 Themes

Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology. The Trump administration on Wednesday laid out the steps it plans to take to ensure "global AI dominance" for the US, with an AI Action Plan that calls for cutting regulations to speed up the development of artificial intelligence tools and the infrastructure to power them. Critics said the plan is a handout to tech and fossil fuel companies, slashing rules that could protect consumers, prevent pollution and fight climate change. The plan itself isn't all that binding. It includes dozens of policy recommendations for the executive branch to carry out but doesn't on its own make anything happen. The steps it lays out follow how the Trump administration has approached AI and technology over the past six months -- giving tech companies a largely free hand, focusing on beating China and prioritizing the construction of data centers, factories and fossil fuel power plants over environmental regulations. It is seizing on the moment created by the arrival of ChatGPT less than three years ago and the ensuing wave of generative AI efforts by Google, Meta and others. "An industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance -- all at once. This is the potential that AI presents," the AI Action Plan says. President Donald Trump is expected to speak on AI priorities later Wednesday during a forum with the hosts of the All-In Podcast. The administration and tech industry groups touted the plan as a framework for US success in a race against China. "President Trump's AI Action Plan presents a blueprint to usher in a new era of US AI dominance," Jason Oxman, president and CEO of the tech industry trade group ITI, said in a statement. Consumer groups said the plan focuses on deregulation and would hurt consumers by reducing the rules that could protect them. "Whether it's promoting the use of federal land for dirty data centers, giving the FTC orders to question past cases, or attempting to revive some version of the soundly defeated AI moratorium by tying federal funds to not having 'onerous regulation' according to the FCC, this is an unwelcome distraction at a critical time for government to get consumer protection right with increasing AI use and abuse," Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, said in a statement. Here's a look at the proposals in the plan. The plan says AI growth will require infrastructure, including chip factories, data centers and more energy generation. And it blames environmental regulations for getting in the way. In response, it proposes exemptions for AI-related construction from certain environmental regulations, including those aimed at protecting clean water and air. It also suggests making federal lands available for data center construction and related power plants. To provide energy for all those data centers, the plan calls for steps to prevent the "premature decommissioning of critical power generation resources." This likely refers to keeping coal-fired power plants and other mostly fossil-fuel-driven infrastructure online for longer. The administration also called to prioritize the connection of new "reliable, dispatchable power sources" to the grid and specifically named nuclear fission and fusion and advanced geothermal generation. Earlier this month, the president signed a bill that would end many tax credits and incentives for renewable energy -- wind and solar -- years earlier than planned. Wind and solar make up the bulk of the new energy generation being added to the US grid right now. Congress ended up not including a moratorium on state AI rules in the recently passed tax and spending bill but efforts to cut regulations around AI continue from the executive branch in the action plan. "AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level," the plan says. The plan recommends that several federal agencies review whether existing or proposed rules would interfere with the development and deployment of AI. The feds would consider whether states' regulatory climate is favorable for AI when deciding to award funding. Federal Trade Commission investigations and orders would be reviewed to determine that they don't "advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation." Those rule changes could undermine efforts to protect consumers from problems caused by AI, critics said. "Companies -- including AI companies -- have a legal obligation to protect their products from being used for harm," Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. "When a company makes design choices that increase the risk their product will be used for harm, or when the risks are particularly serious, companies should bear legal responsibility." The plan proposes some steps around ensuring AI "protects free speech and American values," further steps in the Trump administration's efforts to roll back federal policies around what it refers to as "diversity, equity and inclusion," along with references to the problems of misinformation and climate change. It calls for eliminating references to those items in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's AI Risk Management Framework. Federal agencies would only be allowed to contract with AI developers who "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." The Trump administration has recently announced contracts of up to $200 million each to developers Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI. Grok, the model from Elon Musk's xAI, has recently come under fire for spouting antisemitism and hate speech. The plan acknowledges that AI will "transform how work gets done across all industries and occupations, demanding a serious workforce response to help workers navigate that transition" and recommends actions by federal agencies including the Department of Labor intended to mitigate the harms of AI-driven job displacement. The plan calls for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis to monitor how AI affects the labor market using data already collected. An AI Workforce Research Hub under the Department of Labor would lead monitoring and issue policy recommendations. Most of the actual plans to help workers displaced by AI involve retraining those workers for other jobs or to help states do the same. Other jobs-related recommendations are aimed at boosting the kinds of jobs needed for all those data centers and chip manufacturing plants -- like electricians and HVAC technicians. These plans and others to encourage AI literacy and AI use in education drew praise from the Software & Information Industry Association, a tech industry trade group. "These are key components for building trust and ensuring all communities can participate in and benefit from AI's potential," Paul Lekas, SIIA's senior vice president of global public policy, said in a statement. The plan envisions more use of AI by the federal government. A talent exchange program would allow employees with experience or talent in AI to be detailed to other agencies in need. The General Services Administration would create a toolbox of AI models that would help agencies see models to choose from and use cases in other parts of the government. Every government agency would also be required to ensure employees who could use AI in their jobs have access to and training for AI tools. Many recommendations focus specifically on the Department of Defense, including creating a virtual proving ground for AI and autonomous systems. AI companies have already been signing contracts with the DOD to develop AI tools for the military.

Trump's AI Action Plan Is Here: 5 Key Takeaways

Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology. The Trump administration on Wednesday laid out the steps it plans to take to ensure "global AI dominance" for the US, with an AI Action Plan that calls for cutting regulations to speed up the development of artificial intelligence tools and the infrastructure to power them. Critics said the plan is a handout to tech and fossil fuel companies, slashing rules that could protect consumers, prevent pollution and fight climate change. Though the plan itself isn't binding (it includes dozens of policy recommendations), Trump did sign three executive orders to put some of these steps into action. The changes and proposals follow how the Trump administration has approached AI and technology over the past six months -- giving tech companies a largely free hand; focusing on beating China; and prioritizing the construction of data centers, factories and fossil fuel power plants over environmental regulations. It's seizing on the moment created by the arrival of ChatGPT less than three years ago and the ensuing wave of generative AI efforts by Google, Meta and others. "My administration will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that the United States can build and maintain the largest and most powerful and advanced AI infrastructure anywhere on the planet," Trump said during remarks Wednesday evening at a summit presented by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast. He signed the three executive orders at the event. The administration and tech industry groups touted the plan as a framework for US success in a race against China. "President Trump's AI Action Plan presents a blueprint to usher in a new era of US AI dominance," Jason Oxman, president and CEO of the tech industry trade group ITI, said in a statement. Consumer groups said the plan focuses on deregulation and would hurt consumers by reducing the rules that could protect them. "Whether it's promoting the use of federal land for dirty data centers, giving the FTC orders to question past cases, or attempting to revive some version of the soundly defeated AI moratorium by tying federal funds to not having 'onerous regulation' according to the FCC, this is an unwelcome distraction at a critical time for government to get consumer protection right with increasing AI use and abuse," Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, said in a statement. Here's a look at the proposals in the plan. The plan says AI growth will require infrastructure, including chip factories, data centers and more energy generation. And it blames environmental regulations for getting in the way. In response, it proposes exemptions for AI-related construction from certain environmental regulations, including those aimed at protecting clean water and air. It also suggests making federal lands available for data center construction and related power plants. To provide energy for all those data centers, the plan calls for steps to prevent the "premature decommissioning of critical power generation resources." This likely refers to keeping coal-fired power plants and other mostly fossil-fuel-driven infrastructure online for longer. In his remarks, Trump specifically touted his support for coal and nuclear power plants. The administration also called to prioritize the connection of new "reliable, dispatchable power sources" to the grid and specifically named nuclear fission and fusion and advanced geothermal generation. Earlier this month, the president signed a bill that would end many tax credits and incentives for renewable energy -- wind and solar -- years earlier than planned. Wind and solar make up the bulk of the new energy generation being added to the US grid right now. "This US AI Action Plan doesn't just open the door for Big Tech and Big Oil to team up, it unhinges and removes any and all doors -- it opens the floodgates, continuing to kneecap our communities' rights to protect ourselves," KD Chavez, executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance, said in a statement. "With tech and oil's track records on human rights and their role in the climate crisis, and what they are already doing now to force AI dominance, we need more corporate and environmental oversight, not less." Congress ended up not including a moratorium on state AI rules in the recently passed tax and spending bill but efforts to cut regulations around AI continue from the executive branch in the action plan. "AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level," the plan says. The plan recommends that several federal agencies review whether existing or proposed rules would interfere with the development and deployment of AI. The feds would consider whether states' regulatory climate is favorable for AI when deciding to award funding. Federal Trade Commission investigations and orders would be reviewed to determine that they don't "advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation." Those rule changes could undermine efforts to protect consumers from problems caused by AI, critics said. "Companies -- including AI companies -- have a legal obligation to protect their products from being used for harm," Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. "When a company makes design choices that increase the risk their product will be used for harm, or when the risks are particularly serious, companies should bear legal responsibility." The plan proposes some steps around ensuring AI "protects free speech and American values," further steps in the Trump administration's efforts to roll back federal policies around what it refers to as "diversity, equity and inclusion," along with references to the problems of misinformation and climate change. It calls for eliminating references to those items in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's AI Risk Management Framework. Federal agencies would only be allowed to contract with AI developers who "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." The Trump administration has recently announced contracts of up to $200 million each to developers Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI. Grok, the model from Elon Musk's xAI, has recently come under fire for spouting antisemitism and hate speech. The plan acknowledges that AI will "transform how work gets done across all industries and occupations, demanding a serious workforce response to help workers navigate that transition" and recommends actions by federal agencies including the Department of Labor intended to mitigate the harms of AI-driven job displacement. The plan calls for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis to monitor how AI affects the labor market using data already collected. An AI Workforce Research Hub under the Department of Labor would lead monitoring and issue policy recommendations. Most of the actual plans to help workers displaced by AI involve retraining those workers for other jobs or to help states do the same. Other jobs-related recommendations are aimed at boosting the kinds of jobs needed for all those data centers and chip manufacturing plants -- like electricians and HVAC technicians. These plans and others to encourage AI literacy and AI use in education drew praise from the Software & Information Industry Association, a tech industry trade group. "These are key components for building trust and ensuring all communities can participate in and benefit from AI's potential," Paul Lekas, SIIA's senior vice president of global public policy, said in a statement. The plan envisions more use of AI by the federal government. A talent exchange program would allow employees with experience or talent in AI to be detailed to other agencies in need. The General Services Administration would create a toolbox of AI models that would help agencies see models to choose from and use cases in other parts of the government. Every government agency would also be required to ensure employees who could use AI in their jobs have access to and training for AI tools. Many recommendations focus specifically on the Department of Defense, including creating a virtual proving ground for AI and autonomous systems. AI companies have already been signing contracts with the DOD to develop AI tools for the military.

Trump Just Dropped His AI Action Plan. Here's What's In It

Expertise Artificial intelligence, home energy, heating and cooling, home technology. The Trump administration on Wednesday laid out the steps it plans to take in a bid for "global AI dominance," including reducing regulations to speed up the development of artificial intelligence tools and the infrastructure to power them. Other components of President Trump's AI Action Plan include steps to encourage open-source and open-weight AI models, ensure AI "protects free speech and American values" and promote the use of AI in the Department of Defense. "The Action Plan's objective is to articulate policy recommendations that this Administration can deliver for the American people to achieve the President's vision of global AI dominance," the report said. President Trump is expected to speak on AI priorities later Wednesday during a forum with the hosts of the All-In Podcast. Ahead of the plan's release, a coalition of advocacy groups and tech critics urged the administration to ensure the government would hold large tech firms accountable as AI grows. "We can't let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink -- all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI," the People's AI Action Plan coalition said.

Trump just unveiled his plan to put AI in everything

Lauren Feiner is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Ensuring AI reflects "objective truth," slashing onerous regulations, disseminating US AI tools around the world, and fast-tracking AI infrastructure: this is all part of President Donald Trump's vision for AI policy. The White House unveiled its "AI Action Plan" Wednesday ahead of a scheduled appearance by the president at an event in Washington, DC. The 28-page document lays out three pillars of US AI policy in the Trump era: accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure, and leading international diplomacy and security around AI. Trump is expected to sign a series of related executive orders this week to help implement the plan. He's slated to appear at an event Wednesday evening hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All In Podcast, which is co-hosted by tech investor-turned-White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks. Large chunks of the plan echo bipartisan rhetoric about ensuring the US maintains a leading role in the AI race and integrates the tech into its economy. But other aspects reflect the Trump administration's push to root out diversity efforts and climate initiatives, as well as a Republican-led attempt to ban states from regulating AI. The plan recommends deleting "references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change" in federal risk management guidance and prohibiting the federal government from contracting with large language model (LLM) developers unless they "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias" -- a standard it hasn't yet clearly defined. It says the US must "reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape" to win the AI race. It also seeks to remove state and federal regulatory hurdles for AI development, including by denying states AI-related funding if their rules "hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award," effectively resurrecting a failed congressional AI law moratorium. The plan also suggests cutting rules that slow building data centers and semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and expanding the power grid to support "energy-intensive industries of the future." The Trump administration wants to create a "'try-first' culture for AI across American industry," to encourage greater uptake of AI tools. It encourages the government itself to adopt AI tools, including doing so "aggressively" within the Armed Forces. As AI alters workforce demands, it seeks to "rapidly retrain and help workers thrive in an AI-driven economy." The administration recently lifted restrictions on Nvidia from selling some of its advanced AI chips to companies in China. But the AI Action Plan suggests it's still contemplating some restrictions on selling US technology to foreign adversaries, by recommending the government "address gaps in semiconductor manufacturing export controls." The plan also discusses fostering science and research around AI development, investing in biosecurity as AI is used to find new cures for diseases, and creating the necessary legal framework to combat deepfakes. Implementing this plan and "Winning the AI race" will ensure the country's security, competitiveness, and economic wellbeing, according to an intro by Sacks, the president's science and technology advisor Michael Kratsios, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "The opportunity that stands before us is both inspiring and humbling," they write. "And it is ours to seize, or to lose."

Trump's AI plan pushes AI upskilling instead of worker protections - and 4 other key takeaways

The Trump administration's AI policy covers everything from the future of work to state regulation and censorship. Here's what you need to know. The Trump administration published its AI Action Plan, a 28-page document outlining proposed policies for everything from data center construction to how government agencies will use AI, Wednesday. As expected, the plan emphasizes deregulation, speed, and global dominance while largely avoiding many of the conflicts plaguing the AI space, including debates over copyright, environmental protections, and safety testing requirements. Also: How the Trump administration changed AI: A timeline "America must do more than promote AI within its own borders," the plan says. "The United States must also drive adoption of American AI systems, computing hardware, and standards throughout the world." Here are the main takeaways from the plan and how they could impact the future of AI, nationally and internationally. Companies within and outside the tech industry are increasingly offering AI upskilling courses to mitigate AI's job impact. In a section titled "Empower American Workers in the Age of AI," the AI Action Plan continues this trend, proposing several initiatives built on two April 2025 executive orders for AI education. Specifically, the plan proposes that the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Education (ED), the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Commerce set aside funding for retraining programs and study the impact of AI on the job market. Also: Microsoft is saving millions with AI and laying off thousands - where do we go from here? The plan also creates tax incentives for employees to offer skill development and literacy programs. "In applicable situations, this will enable employers to offer tax-free reimbursement for AI-related training and help scale private-sector investment in AI skill development," the plan clarifies. Nowhere in the document does the administration propose regulations or protections for workers against being replaced by AI. By going all-in on upskilling without adjusting labor laws to AI's reality, the Trump administration puts the onus on workers to keep up. It's unclear how effectively upskilling alone will stave off displacement. Multiple figures within the Trump administration, including the president and AI czar David Sacks, have accused popular AI models from Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI of being "woke," or overly weighted toward liberal values. The AI Action Plan codifies that suspicion by proposing to remove "references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and climate change" from the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF). (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) Released in January 2023, the AI RMF is a public-private implementation resource intended to "improve the ability to incorporate trustworthiness considerations into the design, development, use, and evaluation of AI products, services, and systems" -- similar to MIT's Risk Repository. Currently, it does not include references to misinformation or climate change, but does recommend that workforce DEI initiatives be considered by organizations introducing new AI systems. Also: How these proposed standards aim to tame our AI wild west The AI Action Plan's proposal to remove these mentions -- however broadly defined -- would effectively censor models used by the government. Despite several logic inconsistencies on the protection of free speech, the same section notes that the newly renamed Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) -- formerly the US AI Safety Institute -- will "conduct research and, as appropriate, publish evaluations of frontier models from the People's Republic of China for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship." "We must ensure that free speech flourishes in the era of AI and that AI procured by the Federal government objectively reflects truth rather than social engineering agendas," the plan says. Earlier this summer, Congress proposed a 10-year moratorium on state AI legislation, which companies, including OpenAI, had publicly advocated for. Tucked into Trump's "big, beautiful" tax bill, the ban was removed at the last second before the bill passed. Sections of the AI Action Plan, however, suggest that state AI legislation will remain under the microscope as federal policies roll out, likely in ways that will imperil states' AI funding. The plan intends to "work with Federal agencies that have AI-related discretionary funding programs to ensure, consistent with applicable law, that they consider a state's AI regulatory climate when making funding decisions and limit funding if the state's AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award." The language does not indicate what kinds of regulation would be scrutinized, but given the Trump administration's attitude toward AI safety, bias, responsibility, and other protection efforts, it's fair to assume states trying to regulate AI along these topics would be most targeted. New York's recently passed RAISE bill, which proposes safety and transparency requirements for developers, comes to mind. "The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds, but should also not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation," the plan continues, remaining subjective. For many, state AI legislation remains crucial. "In the absence of Congressional action, states must be permitted to move forward with rules that protect consumers," a Consumer Reports spokesperson told ZDNET in a statement. The plan named several initiatives to accelerate permits for building data centers, which has become a priority as part of Project Stargate and a recent data-center-focused energy investment in Pennsylvania. "We need to build and maintain vast AI infrastructure and the energy to power it. To do that, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape," the plan says. The government intends to "expedite environmental permitting by streamlining or reducing regulations promulgated under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and other relevant related laws." Given the environmental impact that scaling data centers can have, this naturally raises ecological concerns. But some are optimistic that growth will encourage energy efficiency efforts. Also: How much energy does AI really use? The answer is surprising - and a little complicated "As AI continues to scale, so too will its demands on vital natural resources like energy and water," Emilio Tenuta, SVP and chief sustainability officer at Ecolab, a sustainability solutions company, told ZDNET. "By designing and deploying AI with efficiency in mind, we can optimize resource use while meeting demand. The companies that lead and win in the AI era will be those that prioritize business performance while optimizing water and energy use." Whether that happens is still uncertain, especially given the actively adverse effects data center pollution is having today. When Trump reversed Biden's executive order in January, many of its directives had already been baked into specific agencies and were therefore protected. However, the plan indicates the government will continue combing through existing regulations to remove Biden-era relics. The plan proposes that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) investigate "current Federal regulations that hinder AI innovation and adoption and work with relevant Federal agencies to take appropriate action." It continues that OMB will "identify, revise, or repeal regulations, rules, memoranda, administrative orders, guidance documents, policy statements, and interagency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment." Also: The great AI skills disconnect - and how to fix it The plan also intends to "review all Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigations commenced under the previous administration to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation," meaning that Biden-era investigations into AI products could come under revision, potentially freeing companies from responsibility. "This language could potentially be interpreted to give free rein to AI developers to create harmful products without any regard for the consequences," the Consumer Reports spokesperson told ZDNET. "While many AI products offer real benefits to consumers, many pose real threats as well -- such as deepfake intimate image generators, therapy chatbots, and voice cloning services."

Breaking down Trump's big gift to the AI industry

President Donald Trump's plan to promote America's AI dominance involves discouraging "woke AI," slashing state and federal regulations, and laying the groundwork to rapidly expand AI development and adoption. Trump's proposal, released on July 23rd, is a sweeping endorsement of the technology, full of guidance that ranges from specific executive actions to directions for future research. Some of the new plan's provisions (like promoting open-source AI) have garnered praise from organizations that are often broadly critical of Trump, but the loudest acclaim has come from tech and business groups, whose members stand to gain from fewer restrictions on AI. "The difference between the Trump administration and Biden's is effectively night and day," says Patrick Hedger, director of policy at tech industry group NetChoice. "The Biden administration did everything it could to command and control the fledgling but critical sector ... The Trump AI Action Plan, by contrast, is focused on asking where the government can help the private sector, but otherwise, get out of the way." Others are far more ambivalent. Future of Life Institute, which led an Elon Musk-backed push for an AI pause in 2023, said it was heartened to see the Trump administration acknowledge serious risks, like bioweapons or cyberattacks, could be exacerbated by AI. "However, the White House must go much further to safeguard American families, workers, and lives," says Anthony Aguirre, FLI's executive director. "By continuing to rely on voluntary safety commitments from frontier AI corporations, it leaves the United States at risk of serious accidents, massive job losses, extreme concentrations of power, and the loss of human control. We know from experience that Big Tech promises alone are simply not enough." For now, here are the ways that Trump aims to promote AI. Congress failed to pass a moratorium on states enforcing their own AI laws as part of a recent legislative package. But a version of that plan was resurrected in this document. "AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level," the plan says. "The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds, but should also not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation." To do this, it suggests federal agencies that dole out "AI-related discretionary funding" should "limit funding if the state's AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award." It also suggests the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) "evaluate whether state AI regulations interfere with the agency's ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934." The Trump administration also wants the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take a hard look at existing AI regulations and agreements to see what it can scale back. It recommends the agency reevaluate investigations launched during the Biden administration "to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation," and suggests it could throw out burdensome aspects of existing FTC agreements. Some AI-related actions taken during the Biden administration that the FTC might now reconsider include banning Rite Aid's use of AI facial recognition that allegedly falsely identified shoplifters, and taking action against AI-related claims the agency previously found to be deceptive. Trump's plan includes policies designed to help encode his preferred politics in the world of AI. He's ordered a revision of the Biden-era National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework -- a voluntary set of best practices for designing safe AI systems -- removing "references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." (The words "misinformation" and "climate change" don't actually appear in the framework, though misinformation is discussed in a supplementary file.) In addition to that, a new executive order bans federal agencies from procuring what Trump deems "woke AI" or large language models "that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas," including things like racial equity. This section of the plan "seems to be motivated by a desire to control what information is available through AI tools and may propose actions that would violate the First Amendment," says Kit Walsh, director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF). "The plan seeks to require that 'the government only contracts with' developers who meet the administration's ideological criteria. While the government can choose to purchase only services that meet such criteria, it cannot require that developers refrain from also providing non-government users other services conveying other ideas." The administration describes the slow uptake of AI tools across the economy, including in sensitive areas like healthcare, as a "bottleneck to harnessing AI's full potential." The plan describes this cautious approach as one fueled by "distrust or lack of understanding of the technology, a complex regulatory landscape, and a lack of clear governance and risk mitigation standards." To promote the use of AI, the White House encourages a "'try-first' culture for AI across American industry." This includes creating domain-specific standards for adopting AI systems and measuring productivity increases, as well as regularly monitoring how US adoption of AI compares to international competitors. The White House also wants to integrate AI tools throughout the government itself, including by detailing staff with AI expertise at various agencies to other departments in need of that talent, training government employees on AI tools, and giving agencies ample access to AI models. The plan also specifically calls out the need to "aggressively adopt AI within its Armed Forces," including by introducing AI curricula at military colleges and using AI to automate some work. All this AI adoption will profoundly change the demand for human labor, the plan says, likely eliminating or fundamentally changing some jobs. The plan acknowledges that the government will need to help workers prepare for this transition period by retraining people for more in-demand roles in the new economy and providing tax benefits for certain AI training courses. On top of preparing to transition workers from traditional jobs that might be upended by AI, the plan discusses the need to train workers for the additional roles that might be created by it. Among the jobs that might be needed for this new reality are "electricians, advanced HVAC technicians, and a host of other high-paying occupations," the plan says. The administration says it wants to "create a supportive environment for open models," or AI models that allow users to modify the code that underpins them. Open models have certain "pros," like being more accessible to startups and independent developers. Groups like EFF and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which were critical of many other aspects of the plan, applauded this part. EFF's Walsh called it a "positive proposal" to promote "the development of open models and making it possible for a wider range of people to participate in shaping AI research and development. If implemented well, this could lead to a greater diversity of viewpoints and values reflected in AI technologies, compared to a world where only the largest companies and agencies are able to develop AI." That said, there are also serious "cons" to the approach that the AI Action Plan didn't seem to get into. For instance, the nature of open models makes them easier to trick and misalign for purposes like creating misinformation on a large scale, or chemical or biological weapons. It's easier to get past built-in safeguards with such models, and it's important to think critically about the tradeoffs before taking steps to drive open-source and open-weight model adoption at scale. Trump signed an executive order on July 23rd meant to fast track permitting for data center projects. The EO directs the commerce secretary to "launch an initiative to provide financial support" that could include loans, grants, and tax incentives for data centers and related infrastructure projects. Following a similar move by former President Joe Biden, Trump's plan directs agencies to identify federal lands suitable for the "large-scale development" of data centers and power generation. The EO tells the Department of Defense to identify suitable sites on military installations and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify polluted Superfund and Brownfield sites that could be reused for these projects. The Trump administration is hellbent on dismantling environmental regulations, and the EO now directs the EPA to modify rules under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act to expedite permitting for data center projects. The EO and the AI plan, similar to a Biden-era proposal, direct agencies to create "categorical exclusions" for federally supported data center projects that would exclude them from detailed environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. And they argue for using new AI tools to speed environmental assessments and applying the "Fast-41 process" to data center projects to streamline federal permitting. The Trump administration is basically using the AI arms race as an excuse to slash environmental regulations for data centers, energy infrastructure, and computer chip factories. Last week, the administration exempted coal-fired power plants and facilities that make chemicals for semiconductor manufacturing from Biden-era air pollution regulations. The plan admits that AI is a big factor "increasing pressures on the [power] grid." Electricity demand is rising for the first time in more than a decade in the US, thanks in large part to data centers -- a trend that could trigger blackouts and raise Americans' electricity bills. Trump's AI plan lists some much-needed fixes to stabilize the grid, including upgrading power lines and managing how much electricity consumers use when demand spikes. But the administration is saying that the US needs to generate more electricity to power AI just as it's stopping renewable energy growth, which is like trying to win a race in a vehicle with no front wheels. It wants to meet growing demand with fossil fuels and nuclear energy. "We will continue to reject radical climate dogma," the plan says. It argues for keeping existing, mostly fossil-fueled power plants online for longer and limiting environmental reviews to get data centers and new power plants online faster. The lower cost of gas generation has been killing coal power plants for years, but now a shortage of gas turbines could stymie Trump's plans. New nuclear technologies that tech companies are investing in for their data centers probably won't be ready for commercial deployment until the 2030s at the earliest. Republicans, meanwhile, have passed legislation to hobble the solar and wind industries that have been the fastest-growing sources of new electricity in the US. 'Prioritize fundamental advancements in AI interpretability' The Trump administration accurately notes that while developers and engineers know how today's advanced AI models work in a big-picture way, they "often cannot explain why a model produced a specific output. This can make it hard to predict the behavior of any specific AI system." It's aiming to fix that, at least when it comes to some high-stakes use cases. The plan states that the lack of AI explainability and predictability can lead to issues in defense, national security, and "other applications where lives are at stake," and it aims to promote "fundamental breakthroughs on these research problems." The plan's recommended policy actions include launching a tech development program led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to advance AI interpretability, control systems, and security. It also said the government should prioritize fundamental advancements in such areas in its upcoming National AI R&D Strategic Plan and, perhaps most specifically, that the DOD and other agencies should coordinate an AI hackathon to allow academics to test AI systems for transparency, effectiveness, and vulnerabilities. It's true that explainability and unpredictability are big issues with advanced AI. Elon Musk's xAI, which recently scored a large-scale contract with the DOD, recently struggled to stop its Grok chatbot from spouting pro-Hitler takes -- so what happens in a higher-stakes situation? But the government seems unwilling to slow down while this problem is addressed. The plan states that since "AI has the potential to transform both the warfighting and back-office operations of the DOD," the US "must aggressively adopt AI within its Armed Forces if it is to maintain its global military preeminence." The plan also discusses how to better evaluate AI models for performance and reliability, like publishing guidelines for federal agencies to conduct their own AI system evaluations for compliance and other reasons. That's something most industry leaders and activists support greatly, but it's clear what the Trump administration has in mind will lack a lot of the elements they have been pushing for. Evaluations likely will focus on efficiency and operations, according to the plan, and not instances of racism, sexism, bias, and downstream harms. Courtrooms and AI tools mix in strange ways, from lawyers using hallucinated legal citations to an AI-generated appearance of a deceased victim. The plan says that "AI-generated media" like fake evidence "may present novel challenges to the legal system," and it briefly recommends the Department of Justice and other agencies issue guidance on how to evaluate and deal with deepfakes in federal evidence rules. Finally, the plan recommends creating new ways for the research and academic community to access AI models and compute. The way the industry works right now, many companies, and even academic institutions, can't access or pay for the amount of compute they need on their own, and they often have to partner with hyperscalers -- providers of large-scale cloud computing infrastructure, like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft -- to access it. The plan wants to fix that issue, saying that the US "has solved this problem before with other goods through financial markets, such as spot and forward markets for commodities." It recommends collaborating with the private sector, as well as government departments and the National Science Foundation's National AI Research Resource pilot to "accelerate the maturation of a healthy financial market for compute." It didn't offer any specifics or additional plans for that.

Trump's AI plan says a lot about open source - but here's what it leaves out

As expected, President Donald Trump's administration recently unveiled Winning the Race: AI Action Plan went all in on liberating AI companies to do what they want to make sure "that the United States and its allies win the [AI] race." Also: Trump's AI plan pushes AI upskilling instead of worker protections - and 4 other key takeaways What about safety and responsibility? Not so much. The AI Action Plan states it is "a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance," and then it strongly encourages that "open-source and open-weight AI models are made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify." Also: How the Trump administration changed AI: A timeline Am I the only one seeing a contradiction with "unchallenged technological dominance" and open-source code and models to be made "freely available" for anyone in the world? Of course, open-source software's track record speaks for itself. According to the January 2024 Harvard Business School study, if companies had to create equivalent technologies, rebuilding open-source software would cost $8.8 trillion. Our servers, our clouds, and pretty much our entire IT infrastructure now run on Linux and open-source software. Trump's AI Action Plan frames open-source and open-weight AI models as vital catalysts for innovation. This is true. While we can, and have, argued until we're blue in the face about what the proper open-source AI definition is, AI is built solidly on the framework of open-source programs such as TensorFlow and PyTorch. As Chris Wolfe, Broadcom's global head of AI and advanced services, recently said, "Thanks to open source, the pace of AI innovation now surpasses anything closed models could have achieved." Also: I found 5 AI content detectors that can correctly identify AI text 100% of the time The administration also asserts that these freely available models empower not only tech giants, but also small startups, academic researchers, and government agencies. By providing access to the underlying code and model weights, open-source AI is positioned as a cornerstone for advancing the field of AI. The policy statement argues that open models are not only engines of domestic innovation, but have emerging geostrategic value as global technical standards. This move is meant to counter China's growing AI influence, especially open models like DeepSeek. The plan outlines what needs to be done to promote a robust open-source AI ecosystem. This includes increasing access to high-powered computing resources, which were previously locked behind expensive, long-term contracts. That's easy to say, but who's going to pay for all that high-priced compute power? This will be done via the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot program, which is backed in turn by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. These will then partner with tech companies to provide academic and startup communities with advanced model access. US-based individuals and open-source groups can apply for access to AI resources for start-up projects, request access to educational platforms (such as computational notebooks), and browse curated datasets, pre-trained models, and additional tools for training and testing their AI systems. Also: AI leaders must take a tight grip on regulatory, geopolitical, and interpersonal concerns This all sounds impressive, but NAIRR, a public-private project, doesn't have any specific funding from the recently passed US budget, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB). Instead, it's running on the $30 million that former President Joe Biden gave it and the $30 million that Nvidia and other tech companies donated. As a result, only 35 out of more than 150 proposals were awarded NAIRR resources. There's a lot of strong demand, but nothing like enough funding. While early drafts of the BBB proposed a $500 million pool of federal funding specifically tied to AI deployment and infrastructure, some of which was to go to NAIRR, in the end, that was dropped. Today, there is no NAIRR funding stream. Indeed, while there is AI funding in the BBB, it comes with many strings attached. These include compliance with strict domestic content rules and prohibitions on involvement by "prohibited foreign entities." Thus, as the law firm Ropes & Gray warns, "Companies must invest in due diligence, supply chain transparency, and ongoing monitoring to avoid the risk of losing federal benefits, facing enforcement actions, or losing important partnerships. Technology licensing arrangements, M&A, debt, and restructuring activities must be carefully structured to avoid inadvertent violations. " So, while the AI Action Plan frees AI companies' hands to do pretty much whatever they wish, businesses and open-source organizations seeking federal funding will find themselves hampered by a lack of funds and numerous restrictions. By supporting open models "founded on American values," the government hopes to set standards that will inform not only domestic, but also global, AI development. What does that mean? I don't have a good answer. I know what it doesn't mean. The AI Action Plan makes it clear that if your plan involves "misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change," it won't be approved. The plan acknowledges the competitive tension between the proprietary models championed by tech giants and the open-source alternatives. It asserts that open source isn't just a defensive hedge against domestic monopolies, but a strategic offensive to shape international AI norms as US competitors, such as state-backed Chinese models, push their own open platforms. Also: Someone used AI to impersonate a secretary of state - how to make sure you're not next The plan, however, stops short of mandating open-source releases. Those decisions are left to developers and their organizations. Nevertheless, the federal government will reward and support the open AI ecosystem. How? Through the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the government aims to encourage small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to adopt open-source AI software and open-weight AI model. However, there are no particulars yet. In charge of all this, though, is Marco Rubio, who's also the Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Acting Archivist of the US. It should be noted he has no technical or professional experience in open-source or AI research experience. I think it can be best summed up as "Good wishes, but almost nothing in the way of concrete support." Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

Trump announces 'AI Action Plan' for the United States government -- policy roadmap seeks to accelerate adoption of AI tools and spur infrastructure buildout in the race for global dominance

This is what the White House wants to achieve when it comes to AI. President Donald Trump has released a new 20-page document outlining his strategy for keeping American AI technology at the global forefront. The White House calls it America's AI Action Plan [PDF], and it focuses on three policy goals: accelerating AI innovation by removing red tape and regulation, building up American AI infrastructure, and encouraging the use of American AI technology among allies and nations friendly to the U.S The document combines a series of policy recommendations for executive branch agencies with a call for input from stakeholders to identify rules that "hinder AI innovation and adoption," allowing relevant government bodies to address them. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is also directed to "identify, revise, or repeal regulations, rules, memoranda, administrative orders, guidance documents, policy statements, and interagency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment." The White House outlined its plans to bolster American AI infrastructure, encompassing data centers, chip manufacturing, and energy infrastructure. The last one is particularly critical, especially as the national grid struggles to keep up with the ever-increasing demand of AI data centers. AI has become so power-hungry that Elon Musk is importing an entire power plant just to have enough power for his Colossus supercluster. Trump's third push is for the U.S. to export its AI technology to its allies and partners, ensuring they're dependent on American technology for their AI needs. This is similar to a goal that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has advocated -- for the U.S. to disseminate its AI technology so that it will be widely adopted and become the standard globally. However, export control expansion is also one of the policies enumerated in the document, with the document suggesting additional bans on component subsystems used in semiconductor manufacturing. The order also directs the Department of Commerce, through NIST, to "revise the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." The plan also recommends that the US federal government only work with LLM developers whose systems "are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." This is a contentious issue in the President's AI agenda and might even spawn legal battles that would last months, if not years. However, in the meantime, AI developers who want to secure a piece of the government pie will apparently need to align with the current administration's priorities. These pillars listed by the White House indicate how it hopes to achieve supremacy in its AI race against China. This document is not an executive order, meaning it serves as a policy roadmap outlining what Trump aims to achieve. However, it's also a preview of what we can expect from Washington in the coming months and years, and it gives every other government agency clarity and direction on the strategy the Oval Office wants to enact for AI matters.

Trump's 'AI Action Plan' Looks to Boost Data Center Buildouts, Ban 'Woke' AI

Just over six months after dragging the Biden administration's AI agenda to the trash, the Trump administration announced its own set of policies to accelerate the progress of AI. Where President Biden's 2023 executive order on AI and 2022 AI Bill of Rights emphasized deploying AI safely, Trump's "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan" stresses developing it faster than the rest of the world. "America is going to win it," Trump said in a roughly 50-minute speech in Washington on Wednesday evening. "We will not allow any foreign nation to beat us." That 28-page document begins by directing various federal offices to seek input and look for regulations and policies that might impede AI development. It further invites the Federal Communications Commission to see if state-level AI regulations interfere with its own work, although software is well outside the FCC's normal regulatory scope. The plan's opening pages also call on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to "eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change" from the AI Risk Management Framework that it developed in response to Biden's EO. Trump trash-talked that as a plan that "never would have worked." After the speech, Trump signed an executive order banning "Woke AI" from federal systems, which the EO defines as "when ideological biases or social agendas are built into AI models" and "distort the quality and accuracy of the output." Subsequent paragraphs in the plan address a series of AI development issues. It endorses such actions as encouraging "open-weight" and open-source AI models over closed systems; working to develop markets for short-term purchases of data center computing power; boosting workforce training; and having government agencies help create "world-class" datasets to train AI models. Those parts of the plan would assign substantial work to NIST as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) only months after the Trump administration targeted both organizations for steep budget cuts. The White House is also evicting the NSF from its Alexandria, Va., offices to relocate the Department of Housing and Urban Development there. The plan does not address one of the bigger existential risks to AI development: ongoing legal uncertainty over whether training an AI model on copyrighted material could constitute copyright infringement. Trump, however, offered his own take on Wednesday, arguing that AI should keep a right to read: "We have to allow AI to use that pool of knowledge without going through the complexity of contract negotiations." (PCMag's parent company Ziff Davis sued OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) The White House's plan additionally calls for speeding up AI adoption in government-DOGE has already been setting up AI chatbots in various offices-and establishing standards to protect against the risks of "synthetic media" in the courts. Big, Beautiful Data Centers on Federal Land A second major section covers AI infrastructure, mostly in the sense of accommodating the gigantic energy needs of upcoming data centers like the multi-gigawatt facilities Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently outlined on Threads, without mentioning where they'd get their electricity. Trump's plan endorses opening up federal lands for data centers and power plants and other electrical infrastructure and speeding up federal environmental permitting for those facilities, both policies included in a second executive order Trump signed this week. The plan doesn't describe what power sources would qualify for this federal support. Trump's loving mention of "clean, beautiful coal" in his speech suggested one source he'd favor, notwithstanding that burning coal is one of the dirtier ways to generate electricity. The EO, in turn, excludes solar and wind power from consideration to specify only sources that can generate power on demand: "natural gas turbines, coal power equipment, nuclear power equipment, geothermal power equipment, and any other dispatchable baseload energy sources." But while Trump has delighted in undoing Biden policies to support renewable energy, two other provisions in this section of the plan show a willingness to continue some of the previous administration's policies: supporting semiconductor manufacturing in America and encouraging secure-by-design approaches to AI. 'All in for America' A final section calls for having the State Department and the Department of Commerce team up to promote American AI, counter Chinese attempts to set AI standards and stop advanced US technology from making its way to China and other adversary nations. Those two departments, however, may find this sales job a challenge, between resentment over Trump's on-and-off tariffs and State's loss of personnel through firings and resignations. In his speech, Trump said he expects American tech firms, some with leading executives in the audience at the Commerce Department's Andrew Mellon Auditorium, to line up to support his plan: "We need US technology companies to be all in for America." In attendance on Wednesday night: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su. Earlier in that rambling address-which also featured Trump denouncing the "Green New Scam," transgender athletes, "radical globalism," Biden's use of an autopen, and Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, among others-the president also suggested one other shift not mentioned in the plan. That would be renaming "artificial intelligence" to something else. "I don't like anything that's artificial," Trump said. "It's not artificial, it's genius. It's pure genius."

White House Unveils Sweeping AI Action Plan to Boost Development

The Trump administration called for boosting artificial intelligence development in the US by loosening regulations and expanding energy supply for data centers under new guidelines that also urged the federal government to withhold funding from states determined to have burdensome regulations on the emerging technology. The so-called AI Action Plan, released by the White House on Wednesday, seeks to assert US dominance over China. The blueprint recommends revamping the permitting process and streamlining environmental standards to speed AI-related infrastructure projects. It also seeks to make American technology the foundation for AI worldwide while enacting security measures to keep foreign adversaries like China from gaining an edge.

White House to unveil plan to push US AI abroad, crackdown on US AI rules, document shows

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday intends to publish a plan that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let American AI flourish, a document seen by Reuters shows. According to a summary of the draft plan seen by Reuters, the White House will bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state AI laws conflict with its mandate. It will also promote open source and open weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department. The plan will "focus on empowering American workers through AI-enabled job creation and industry breakthroughs," according to the document. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The document shows President Donald Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, a marked departure from former President Joe Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on exports of coveted American AI chips to China and other countries that could divert the semiconductors to China over national security concerns. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also pulled back Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. Last month, White House AI czar David Sacks downplayed the risk that coveted American AI chips could be smuggled to bad actors and expressed concern that regulating U.S. AI too tightly could stifle growth and cede the critical market to China. Under Trump's plan, the White House would also promote AI use at the Pentagon, launch a program to identify federal regulations that impede AI development, and streamline the permitting process for data center construction. Writing by Alexandra Alper, Editing by Franklin Paul Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

White House to unveil plan to push US AI abroad, crack down on restrictive rules, document shows

WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - The White House intends to publish a plan on Wednesday that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a document seen by Reuters shows. According to a summary of the draft plan seen by Reuters, the White House will bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate. It will also promote open source and open weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department. The plan will "focus on empowering American workers through AI-enabled job creation and industry breakthroughs," according to the document. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his administration in January to produce a plan that would make "America the world capital in artificial intelligence" and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion. That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by Wednesday. Trump is set to mark that deadline with a major speech as part of an event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the All-In podcast. "The Plan will deliver a strong, specific, and actionable federal policy roadmap that goes beyond the details reported here and we look forward to releasing it soon," White House Office of Science and Technology Policy spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said in a statement. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, a marked departure from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on exports of coveted American AI chips to China and other countries that could use or divert the semiconductors to China over national security concerns. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also pulled back Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. Last month, Sacks downplayed the risk that coveted American AI chips could be smuggled to bad actors and expressed concern that regulating U.S. AI too tightly could stifle growth and cede the critical market to China. Under Trump's plan, the White House would also promote AI use at the Pentagon, launch a program to identify federal regulations that impede AI development and streamline the permitting process for data center construction. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Franklin Paul and Mark Porter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Trump to outline AI priorities amid tech battle with China

July 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is set to release a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to relax American rules governing the industry at the center of a technological arms race between economic rivals the U.S. and China. President Donald Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the U.S. investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. According to a summary seen by Reuters, the plan calls for the export of U.S. AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from former President Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. Top administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett are also expected to join the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast, according to an event schedule reviewed by Reuters. Trump may incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. The event will be hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump's campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The new AI plan will seek to bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate, according to the summary. The Trump administration will also promote open-source and open-weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department, according to the summary. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, in stark contrast to Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. In May, Trump announced deals with the United Arab Emirates that gave the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the U.S. after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Trump administration seeks pathway for US companies to export AI chips

July 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to deregulate the industry and makes it easier and less risky for U.S. companies to export their technologies to foreign countries. President Donald Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the United States investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. The plan, which includes some 90 recommendations, calls for the export of U.S. AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from predecessor Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. The administration said it plans to partner with the AI industry to create export packages of chips and software for America's friends and allies. "We're establishing a program led by the departments of Commerce and State to partner with industry to deliver secure full-stack AI export packages, including hardware models, software applications and standards to America's friends and allies around the world," said Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Trump will incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. Top administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett are also expected to join the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast, according to an event schedule reviewed by Reuters. The event will be hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump's campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The new plan seeks to bar federal funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate, according to the summary. Trump wants to remove barriers to AI expansion, in stark contrast to Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. In May, Trump announced deals with the United Arab Emirates that gave the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders, Jamie Freed and Mark Porter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - The White House released an artificial intelligence (AI) policy plan on Wednesday spelling out priorities for the U.S. to achieve "global dominance" in the sector. U.S. President Donald Trump's plan calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify. The plan also calls for the Commerce Department to research Chinese AI models for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship. As previously reported by Reuters, it adds the federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with "burdensome" regulations. Reporting by Chris Sanders, writing by Maiya Keidan Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies

July 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology. President Donald Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the United States investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. The plan, which includes some 90 recommendations, calls for the export of U.S. AI software and hardware abroad as well as a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from predecessor Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. "We're establishing a program led by the departments of Commerce and State to partner with industry to deliver secure full-stack AI export packages, including hardware models, software applications and standards to America's friends and allies around the world," said Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. An expansion in exports of a full suite of AI products could benefit AI chip juggernauts Nvidia and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab as well as AI model giants Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta (META.O), opens new tab. Biden feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. The former president, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. "Our edge (in AI) is not something that we can sort of rest on our laurels," Vice President JD Vance said at the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast. "If we're regulating ourselves to death and allowing the Chinese to catch up to us, that's not something ... we should blame the Chinese for..., that is something we should blame our own leaders for, for having stupid policies that allow other countries to catch up with America," Vance said. The AI plan, according to a senior administration official, does not address national security concerns around Nvidia's H20 chip, which powers AI models and was designed to walk right up to the line of prior restrictions on Chinese AI chip access. Trump blocked the export of the H20 to China in April but allowed the company to resume sales earlier this month, sparking rare public criticism from fellow Republicans. FAST TRACKING DATA CENTERS The plan also calls for fast tracking the construction of data centers by loosening environmental regulations and utilizing federal land to expedite development of the projects, including any power supplies. The administration will seek to establish new exclusions for data centers under the National Environmental Policy Act and streamline permits under the Clean Water Act. Trump will incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The export expansion plans announced Saturday take a page from deals unveiled in May that gave the United Arab Emirates expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. The event is hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump's campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders, Jamie Freed and Mark Porter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies, loosen environmental rules

July 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology. President Donald Trump marked the plan's release with a speech where he laid out the stakes of the technological arms race with China, calling it a fight that will define the 21st century. "America is the country that started the AI race. And as President of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it," Trump said. The plan, which includes some 90 recommendations, calls for the export of U.S. AI software and hardware abroad as well as a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from predecessor Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. "We also have to have a single federal standard, not 50 different states regulating this industry in the future," Trump said. Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters on Wednesday the departments of Commerce and State will partner with the industry to "deliver secure full-stack AI export packages, including hardware models, software applications and standards to America's friends and allies around the world." An expansion in exports of a full suite of AI products could benefit AI chip juggernauts Nvidia and AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab as well as AI model giants Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta (META.O), opens new tab. Biden feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. The former president, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. "Our edge (in AI) is not something that we can sort of rest on our laurels," Vice President JD Vance said in a separate appearance at the event, which was organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast. "If we're regulating ourselves to death and allowing the Chinese to catch up to us, that's not something ... we should blame the Chinese for..., that is something we should blame our own leaders for, for having stupid policies that allow other countries to catch up with America," Vance said. The AI plan, according to a senior administration official, does not address national security concerns around Nvidia's H20 chip, which powers AI models and was designed to walk right up to the line of prior restrictions on Chinese AI chip access. Trump blocked the export of the H20 to China in April but allowed the company to resume sales earlier this month, sparking rare public criticism from fellow Republicans. FAST-TRACKING DATA CENTERS The plan also calls for fast-tracking the construction of data centers by loosening environmental regulations and utilizing federal land to expedite development of the projects, including any power supplies. The administration will seek to establish new exclusions for data centers under the National Environmental Policy Act and streamline permits under the Clean Water Act. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The export expansion plans take a page from deals unveiled in May that gave the United Arab Emirates expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders, Jamie Freed and Mark Porter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Blocking 'woke AI' from tech contractors Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Streamlining AI data center permits Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." A new approach to AI exports? It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. Who benefits from Trump's AI action plan There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances. ___ Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Live updates: Trump will reveal 'AI Action Plan' shaped by his Silicon Valley supporters

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January and revoking former President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches: accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year.

Trump's AI Action Plan targets state regulation and 'ideological bias'

The President will also open federal lands to data center projects. At the start of the year, President Trump announced his AI Action Plan, an initiative he said would eventually enact policy that would "enhance America's position as an AI powerhouse." Now, after months of consultation with industry players like Google and OpenAI, the administration has finally shared the specific actions it plans to take. Notably, the framework seeks to limit state regulation of AI companies by instructing the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and other federal agencies to consider a state's existing AI laws before awarding AI-related funding. "The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed to those states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds," the document states. As you may recall, Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" was supposed to include a 10-year qualified moratorium on state AI regulation before that amendment was ultimately removed in a 99-1 vote by the US Senate. Elsewhere, the AI Action Plan targets AI systems the White House says promote "social engineering agendas." To that end, Trump plans to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology, through the Department of Commerce, to revise its AI Risk Management Framework to remove any mentions of "misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." Furthermore, he's calling for an update to the federal government's procurement guidelines to ensure the government only contracts model providers that can definitively say their AI systems are "free from top-down ideological bias." Just how companies like OpenAI, Google and others are expected to do this is unclear from the document. Separately, Trump says he plans to remove regulatory hurdles that slow the construction of AI data centers. "America's environmental permitting system and other regulations make it almost impossible to build this infrastructure in the United States with the speed that is required," the document states. Specifically, the president plans to make federal lands available for the construction of data centers and power generation facilities. Under the Action Plan, the federal government will also expand efforts to use AI to carry out environmental reviews. The president plans to sign a handful of executive orders today to start the wheels turning on his action plan. Trump began his second term by rescinding President Biden's October 2023 AI guidelines. Biden's executive order outlined a plan to establish protections for the general public with regard to artificial intelligence. Specifically, the EO sought new standards for safety and security in addition to protocols for AI watermarking and both civil rights and consumer protections.

No 'woke AI' in Washington, Trump says as he launches American AI action plan

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to keep "woke AI" models out of Washington and to turn the country into an "AI export powerhouse" through the signing of three artificial intelligence-focused executive orders on Wednesday. The phasing out of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives -- an umbrella term encompassing various practices, policies, and strategies aimed at fostering a more inclusive and equitable culture -- has been a major focus of the second Trump administration. Now, the White House is bringing the battle to AI. The "PREVENTING WOKE AI IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT" order states that the federal government "has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas." The executive order identifies DEI as one of the "most pervasive and destructive" of these ideologies to be kept out of AI models used by the government. "LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI," the order said, adding that developers should not intentionally encode partisan or ideological judgments into an LLM's outputs unless those judgments are prompted by users. As acknowledged by the order, the use of AI is increasingly prevalent across Americans' daily lives and is expected to play a critical role in the way they learn and consume information -- making "reliable outputs" necessary. In the eyes of the Trump administration, DEI in AI can lead to discriminatory outcomes; distort and manipulate AI model outputs in regard to race and sex; and incorporate concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality and systemic racism. "DEI displaces the commitment to truth in favor of preferred outcomes and, as recent history illustrates, poses an existential threat to reliable AI," the anti-woke order reads. Without giving specifics, the order refers to past examples of this, including a major AI model that changed the race or sex of historical figures such as the pope and Founding Fathers when prompted for images. In response to backlash last year, Google had pulled its Gemini AI image generation feature, saying it offered "inaccuracies" in historical pictures. Months later, the company rolled out an improved version. Instead of "woke AI", the government should procure "truth-seeking" AI models that "prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, and shall acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory," the order stated. However, it adds that the federal government "should be hesitant" to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace. In other AI developments on Wednesday, the Trump administration signed an order to spur innovation in the technology by removing what it called "onerous Federal regulations that hinder AI development and deployment." Another order aims to establish and implement an "American AI Exports Program" to support the development and deployment of the U.S. AI technology stack abroad. The moves are part of the administration's "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan," which it says identifies 90 federal policy actions across three pillars: the acceleration of innovation, building of AI infrastructure, and leadership in international diplomacy and security.

Everyone's a loser in Trump's AI Action Plan

On July 23, the Trump Administration released its long-awaited AI Action Plan. Short of copyright exemptions for model training, the administration appears ready to give OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other major players nearly everything they asked of the White House during public consultation. However, according to Travis Hall, the director of state engagement at the Center for Democracy and Technology, Trump's policy vision would put states, and tech companies themselves, in a position of "extraordinary regulatory uncertainty." It starts with Trump's attempt to prevent states from regulating AI systems. In the original draft of his recently passed tax megabill, the president included an amendment that would have imposed a 10-year moratorium on any state-level AI regulation. Eventually, that clause was removed from the legislation in a decisive 99-1 vote by the Senate. It appears Trump didn't get the message. In his Action Plan, the president signals he will order federal agencies to only award "AI-related" funding to states without "burdensome" AI regulations. "It is not really clear which discretionary funds will be deemed to be 'AI-related', and it's also not clear which current state laws -- and which future proposals -- will be deemed 'burdensome' or as 'hinder[ing] the effectiveness' of federal funds. This leaves state legislators, governors, and other state-level leaders in a tight spot," said Grace Gedye, policy analyst for Consumer Reports. "It is extremely vague, and I think that is by design," adds Hall. The issue with the proposal is nearly any discretionary funding could be deemed AI-related. Hall suggests a scenario where a law like the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act (CAIA), which is designed to protect people against algorithmic discrimination, could be seen as hindering funding meant to provide schools with technology enrichment because they plan to teach their students about AI. The potential for a "generous" reading of "AI-related" is far-reaching. Everything from broadband to highway infrastructure funding could be put at risk because machine learning technologies have begun to touch every part of modern life. On its own, that would be bad enough, but the president also wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to evaluate whether state AI regulations interfere with its "ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934." If Trump were to somehow enact this part of this plan, it would transform the FCC into something very different from what it is today. "The idea that the FCC has authority over artificial intelligence is really extending the Communications Act beyond all recognition," said Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. "It traditionally has not had jurisdiction over things like websites or social media. It's not a privacy agency, and so given the fact that the FCC is not a full-service technology regulator, it's really hard to see how it has authority over AI." Hall notes this part of Trump's plan is particularly worrisome in light of how the president has limited the agency's independence. In March, Trump illegally fired two of the FCC's Democratic commissioners. In July, the Commission's sole remaining Democrat, Anna Gomez, accused Republican Chair Brendan Carr of "weaponizing" the agency "to silence critics." "It's baffling that the president is choosing to go it alone and unilaterally try to impose a backdoor state moratorium through the FCC, distorting their own statute beyond recognition by finding federal funds that might be tangentially related to AI and imposing new conditions on them," said Venzke. On Wednesday, the president also signed three executive orders to kick off his AI agenda. One of those, titled "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government," limits federal agencies to only obtaining those AI systems that are "truth-seeking," and free of ideology. "LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI," the order states. "LLMs shall prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity, and shall acknowledge uncertainty where reliable information is incomplete or contradictory." The pitfalls of such a policy should be obvious. "The project of determining what is absolute truth and ideological neutrality is a hopeless task," said Venzke. "Obviously you don't want government services to be politicized, but the mandates and executive order are not workable and leave serious questions." "It's very apparent that their goal is not neutrality," adds Hall. "What they're putting forward is, in fact, a requirement for ideological bias, which is theirs, and which they're calling neutral. With that in mind, what they're actually requiring is that LLMs procured by the federal government include their own ideological bias and slant." Trump's executive order creates an arbitrary political test that companies like OpenAI must pass or risk losing government contracts -- something AI firms are actively courting. At the start of the year, OpenAI debuted ChatGPT Gov, a version of its chatbot designed for government agency use. xAI announced Grok for Government last week. "If you're building LLMs to satisfy government procurement requirements, there's a real concern that it's going to carry over to wider private uses," said Venzke. There's a greater likelihood of consumer-facing AI products conforming to these same reactionary parameters if the Trump administration should somehow find a way to empower the FCC to regulate AI. Under Brendan Carr, the Commission has already used its regulatory power to strongarm companies to align with the president's stance on diversity, equity and inclusion. In May, Verizon won FCC approval for its $20 billion merger with Frontier after promising to end all DEI-related practices. Skydance made a similar commitment to close its $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global. Even without direct government pressure to do so, Elon Musk's Grok chatbot has demonstrated twice this year what a "maximally truth-seeking" outcome can look like. First, in mid-May it made unprompted claims about "white genocide" in South Africa; more recently it went full "MechaHitler" and took a hard turn toward anti-semitism. According to Venzke, Trump's entire plan to preempt states from regulating AI is "probably illegal," but that's a small comfort when the president has actively flouted the law far too many times to count less than a year into his second term, and the courts haven't always ruled against his behavior. "It is possible that the administration will read the directives from the AI Action Plan narrowly and proceed in a thoughtful way about the FCC jurisdiction, about when federal programs actually create a conflict with state laws, and that is a very different conversation. But right now, the administration has opened the door to broad, sort of reckless preemption of state laws, and that is simply going to pave the way for harmful, not effective, AI."

Trump unveils AI Action Plan that aims to clamp down regulations and 'bias'

The AI plan promises to build data centre infrastructure, and promote American technology - but was panned by critics who consider it an ideological flex by the White House. The plan calls for federal agencies to review and repeal policies that stand in the way of AI development, and encourage AI development in both government and the private sector. President Donald Trump is expected to sign three related executive orders on Wednesday. One order will promote the international export of US-developed AI technologies, while another aims to root out what the administration describes as "woke" or ideologically biased AI systems. "American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," the White House said. "With the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans." Crypto czar Sacks added that the plan is partially focused on preventing AI technology from being "misused or stolen by malicious actors" and will "monitor for emerging and unforeseen risks from AI". The Trump administration has positioned the expansion of AI infrastructure and investments in the United States as a way to stay ahead of China. "AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and national security," Sacks said. "It's just very important that America continues to be the dominant power in AI." But critics argued that the plan was a giveaway to Big Tech. "The White House AI Action plan was written by and for tech billionaires, and will not serve the interests of the broader public," said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute. "[T]he administration's stance prioritizes corporate interests over the needs of everyday people who are all already being affected by AI," West added. In 2023, Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, signed an executive order that called for safety and security standards governing the use of AI in the federal government - an order that was rescinded by Trump on the first day he took office in January. Days later, Trump signed an executive order that called for an accelerated AI development, the removal of ideological bias and today's AI action plan, for which it sought public comment. Officials say the plan was shaped by more than 10,000 public comments. AI regulation was also a major sticking point in recent negotiations about Trump's massive budget bill passed by Congress earlier this month. The bill originally included a ten-year moratorium barring states from regulating artificial intelligence. Lawmakers ultimately stripped that language from the bill.

Trump Administration Plans to Speed Up A.I. Development

The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it planned to take a hands-off approach to regulating artificial intelligence, launching a sweeping effort to put its stamp on the policies governing the fast-growing technology. The A.I. Action Plan, President Trump's first comprehensive initiative on the topic, outlines measures to "remove red tape and onerous regulation," as well as make it easier for companies to build infrastructure to power A.I. The plan also calls for the government to give federal contracts to companies that "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." It said a government agency should revise guidelines for A.I.'s development to remove mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion, climate change and misinformation. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump is scheduled to deliver his first major speech on A.I., a technology that experts have said could upend communications, geopolitics and the economy in the coming years. The president is also expected to sign executive orders related to the technology. Mr. Trump previously warned of China's potential to outpace American progress on the technology. He has said the federal government needs to support A.I. companies with tax incentives, more foreign investment, and less focus on safety regulations that could hamper progress. "We believe we're in an A.I race," said David Sacks, the White House A.I. and crypto czar, on a call with reporters. "And we want the United States to win that race." The changes outlined on Wednesday would benefit tech giants locked in a fierce contest to produce generative A.I. products and successfully persuade consumers to weave the tools into their daily lives. Since OpenAI's public release of ChatGPT in late 2022, tech companies have raced to produce their own versions of the technology, which can write humanlike texts and produce realistic images and videos. Companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI are jockeying for access to computing power, typically from huge data centers filled with computers that can stress local communities' resources. And the companies are facing increased competition from rivals like the Chinese start-up DeepSeek, which sent shock waves around the world this year after it created a powerful A.I. model with far less money than many thought possible. The fight over resources in Silicon Valley has run alongside an equally charged debate in Washington over how to confront the societal transformations that A.I. could bring. Critics worry that if left unchecked, the technology could be a potent tool for scammers and extremists and lay waste to the economy as more jobs are automated. News outlets and artists have sued A.I. companies over claims that they illegally trained their technology using copyrighted works and articles. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The companies have denied wrongdoing.) Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took one major action on artificial intelligence: a 2023 executive order that mandated safety and security standards for the development and use of A.I. across the federal government. But hours after his inauguration in January, Mr. Trump rolled back that order. Days later, he signed another executive order, "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence," which called for an acceleration of A.I. development by U.S. tech companies and for versions of the technology that operated without ideological bias. The order included a mandate for administration officials to come up with "an artificial intelligence action plan," with policy guidelines to encourage the growth of the A.I. industry. The administration solicited comments from companies while it considered its plan. OpenAI called for the administration to expand its list of countries eligible to import A.I. technologies from the United States, a list that has been limited by controls designed to stop China from gaining access to American technology. OpenAI and Google called for greater support in building A.I. data centers through tax breaks and fewer barriers for foreign investment. OpenAI, Google and Meta also said they believed they had legal access to copyrighted works like books, films and art for training their A.I. Meta asked the White House to issue an executive order or other action to "clarify that the use of publicly available data to train models is unequivocally fair use." The action plan released on Wednesday outlined a wide range of policy shifts to speed the development of the technology. Many of them focused on the construction of new data centers and the electrical grid that provides the energy needed to power them. The federal government should impose fewer environmental regulations on the construction of new data centers and support training programs for workers needed to staff the facilities, the plan added. The report also said the government should prioritize the export of American A.I. tools. It called for federal agencies to help the industry sell packages of A.I. products abroad and work to counter China's influence over the technology. This story is breaking and will be updated.

Trump unveils aggressive AI plan focused on deregulation, dismisses copyright payments for AI training

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? President Donald Trump has taken a firm stance on one of the most contentious questions in artificial intelligence: whether companies developing AI should be required to pay for the copyrighted content used to train their systems. Speaking at an AI Summit in Washington, Trump dismissed the idea as unworkable. He argued that requiring AI firms to compensate for every book, article, or piece of media used in training their models would stifle innovation and risk leaving the United States behind global competitors like China. "You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or whatever you've studied you're expected to pay for," Trump said, likening the process to a person reading for knowledge - a practice not subject to royalties or contract negotiations. Trump's comments come at a time when copyright holders, authors, and content creators are increasingly alarmed by how AI companies use their materials without permission, sparking lawsuits and a heated debate over intellectual property rights. Trump, however, dismissed the notion that strict licensing requirements are feasible in the global AI race, noting that China does not enforce similarly stringent rules. This, he warned, could put American technological leadership at risk. The summit served not only as a platform for policy pronouncements but also as the launch event for a sweeping new initiative from the White House: America's AI Action Plan. Released on July 23, the plan outlines a markedly different approach to artificial intelligence from that of former President Joe Biden. While Biden's administration emphasized safeguards, risk management, and consumer protections, Trump's blueprint focuses on eliminating regulatory barriers and delivering an unequivocal push for national competitiveness. The 28-page action plan includes roughly 90 recommendations aimed at accelerating AI innovation, expanding domestic infrastructure, and securing US leadership in growing international markets. Central to the strategy is a rapid increase in American AI technology exports, particularly to allied nations. The Trump administration plans to encourage federal agencies to partner with industry consortia on "full-stack" export packages encompassing software, hardware, data solutions, and technical standards. To support AI at scale, the plan calls for fast-tracking new data center construction by easing longstanding environmental regulations, opening up federal land, and streamlining permit approvals nationwide. The administration also seeks to exempt data centers from certain provisions of major environmental laws to ensure infrastructure keeps pace with demand. These measures aim to meet the soaring electricity needs of the sector, as AI and cloud computing continue to drive US power consumption to record levels. The plan also outlines a federal strategy to preempt state-level regulations deemed too restrictive for AI businesses. Trump has repeatedly emphasized that a single national standard must govern the future of American AI, rather than a patchwork of rules set by individual states. Federal funding for AI-related projects may be withheld from states pursuing aggressive regulatory approaches. At the same time, the plan encourages the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to review - and potentially challenge - state and legal actions considered unduly burdensome to innovation. Notably, the action plan mandates that federal contracts for large language models and other high-impact AI systems be awarded only to companies whose technologies are deemed free from "top-down ideological bias." The White House seeks to remove requirements related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, misinformation, and climate change from official AI risk management frameworks, positioning the federal government as a defender of "objective truth" and "free speech" in the age of AI. Despite Trump's vocal remarks on copyright, the action plan stops short of directly addressing the issue. The absence of clear guidance on intellectual property leaves key legal questions unresolved, with administration officials suggesting that such disputes should be settled in the courts. The plan does, however, address deepfakes - false or manipulated audio, video, and images - by calling for new federal guidance and a "voluntary forensic framework" to help courts assess the authenticity of digital evidence. The Trump administration's initiative also rescinds several Biden-era rules viewed as impediments to AI development, including restrictions on the export of advanced chips and executive orders targeting misinformation. The policy shift is intended to allow US firms such as Nvidia, AMD, Google, Microsoft, and Meta to more freely deploy their technologies worldwide, reinforcing American influence in what Trump describes as a defining competition of the 21st century.

Trump Releases His All-American Action Plan for AI

Donald Trump on Wednesday revealed "America's AI Action Plan," a collection of more than 90 policy recommendations designed to ensure that the country remains competitive when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence, some of which would loosen regulations around the development of data centers and encourage rapid adoption of the technology across different sectors. “We believe we’re in an AI race,†David Sacks, the White House AI czar, said during a call with reporters. “We want the United States to win that race.†The 23-page plan is broken down into three primary pillars that the Trump administration sees as key to speeding up AI development: "Accelerate AI Innovation," "Build American AI Infrastructure," and "Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security." Trump plans to get the ball rolling on the plan by signing several executive orders on Wednesday, per Bloomberg, including a directive to use the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Export-Import Bank to encourage American technology be deployed globally and another that will require any large language models used by the federal government to be neutral and "unbiased." What Trump's plan primarily amounts to is rolling back regulations. For instance, the report calls to "reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape" that it believes will interfere with expanding AI infrastructure, including building data centers and new power plants to support them, plants that Trump has already declared are a-okay to be coal-powered. The administration is also using the plan to get its say on state-level AI laws, since its attempt to pass a 10-year ban on states passing their own regulations for AI got stripped from the One Big, Beautiful Bill. Within the plan, there is a call to withhold federal funding from any state that enacts "burdensome AI regulations." Given the lack of detail as to what amounts to a burden, the administration will surely flex that muscle at will. The plan calls for siccing the Federal Communications Commission on the states by putting the agency in charge of evaluating "whether state AI regulations interfere with the agency’s ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934." There is also a fair amount of undoing what little AI policy came before within the "Action Plan." While the Biden administration only issued a single executive order related to AI, it did start ramping up federal agencies to address potential concerns related to the new technology. That seems to be over now. Trump's plan calls for reviewing all Federal Trade Commission investigations initiated by the Biden administration to make sure they "do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation.†The Trump administration also plans to revisit the National Institute of Standards and Technology's AI Risk Management Framework to "eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." The Action Plan does call on AI models to be open-sourced, so that's nice. But the rest of the plan seems to be carte blanche for AI companies to do as they see fit, with few requirements or regulations to protect the public. It also shows little interest from the federal government in looking into what potential harm that it might cause.

Silicon Valley's bet on Trump starts to pay off

The president is expected to unveil an AI strategy on Wednesday that is set to benefit American tech companies and investors. Silicon Valley's risky bet on President Donald Trump is starting to pay dividends. The White House on Wednesday plans to reveal how it will position the United States to lead a global race to develop artificial intelligence and unveil three executive orders intended to boost the American tech sector, according to two people familiar with the rollout who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public. Together, the actions will facilitate exports of U.S. technologies and boost the build-out of data centers -- advancing the agenda of executives and investors seeking to cash in on an AI gold rush. Trump is set to discuss the plan at an event co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an influential interest group founded by tech leaders, and "All-In," a popular Silicon Valley podcast co-hosted by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks. Administration officials are later expected to attend an after-party organized by the Hill and Valley Forum's co-founders at the upscale, members-only Ned's Club, according to an invitation viewed by The Washington Post. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to speak at the event, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private event. The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI. Trump has flaunted his administration's connections to the industry as a display of innovation and economic power. But consumer advocates warn that industry should not be able to write its own rules, amid concerns that AI could kill jobs, harm the environment and exacerbate existing social biases. "Unlike the last administration, President Trump is not strangling AI innovation with red tape," said Jacob Helberg, a co-founder of the Hill and Valley Forum who is Trump's nominee for undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. "He is rolling out the red carpet." Among the actions set to be revealed Wednesday is an executive order targeting "woke" artificial intelligence, an answer to Trump's Silicon Valley supporters who allege companies have built tools and chatbots that show a liberal political bias. Those moves could benefit some tech companies that have tweaked their models to address these allegations, but they could limit the ability of other companies to contract with the federal government. Trump's AI plan is just the latest administration policy that stands to amplify the fortunes of his Silicon Valley supporters, many of whom publicized their support for him in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year and donated millions to support his candidacy. In just the past month, Trump has signed legislation that lends greater legitimacy to cryptocurrencies, pressured Canada to drop a new tax on tech firms, and cemented tax cuts for the wealthy and deductions for corporate research through the One Big Beautiful Bill -- policies that signaled the resilience of a relatively new and often fraught alliance between tech leaders and the populist president. The relationship has at times alienated members of his Make America Great Again base, who oppose some of the industry's priorities, such as immigration by highly skilled workers. Though Trump's relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly imploded last month, many high-profile tech leaders remain aligned with the president. The after-party Wednesday is expected to draw Altman, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, 1789 Capital founder Chris Buskirk and Farvahar Partners CEO Omeed Malik, among others. Hill and Valley co-founders Christian Garrett, Delian Asparouhov and Helberg organized the event. The cozy displays are a dramatic shift from the Biden administration, which sought to regulate Silicon Valley companies and limit the potential harms of artificial intelligence through testing of AI models. Silicon Valley has historically been a liberal stronghold, and many tech leaders and investors had close relationships with the Obama administration. The tech industry has not gotten everything it wanted from the Trump administration. Some companies have lobbied the White House for exemptions to Trump's tariffs, which could increase the cost of phones and other devices manufactured outside the United States. Large tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta and Apple, remain locked in antitrust litigation with the U.S. government. But overall there's been an "ethos shift" in how the government approaches artificial intelligence in the first six months of the Trump administration, said Chris Lehane, the chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. That shift is in part due to personnel, with former tech leaders like Sacks working in the White House, he said. "They understand the technology, they understand the financial markets and what we need to do to unlock our superpowers," Lehane said. "They have the trust at the highest levels of the White House."

Trump's 90-point action plan takes aim at China, "woke" AI systems

At the heart of the plan is a push to streamline development and deployment. The federal government will expedite permits for data centers and semiconductor facilities, launch workforce programs for in-demand trades like electricians and HVAC technicians, and work with industry to export secure, full-stack AI systems, including hardware, models, and software, to allied nations. The plan also updates federal procurement guidelines to ensure agencies contract only with frontier model developers that ensure ideological neutrality and objectivity, a major theme throughout Trump's AI agenda. The broader deregulatory context also looms large. AI regulation became a flashpoint in the recent 'big, beautiful bill' negotiations, with Trump allies pushing for a ten-year moratorium on state-level AI rules. That provision was ultimately dropped from the final bill passed earlier this month, but it signals ongoing efforts to preempt fragmented regulation and maintain a pro-industry federal stance. Wednesday's announcement also builds on the $500 billion Stargate Project, a private-sector-led infrastructure project launched earlier this year with support from Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank. Backed by streamlined permitting and relaxed environmental rules, the initiative aims to develop large-scale AI data centers and cement American infrastructure leadership in the field over the course of next four years.

Opinion | Trump is off to a good start with an AI action plan

A view of the shadow of President Donald Trump as he speaks during the "Winning the AI Race" summit on Wednesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The most important question for the United States regarding artificial intelligence right now is not how it will be used, or even how it will affect the economy and culture. It is whether the U.S. will maintain AI dominance. The race to own the technology of the future is a race we must not lose, because if superintelligence really is possible, there might be no prize for second place. China, our leading AI competitor, is also our biggest geostrategic rival. This adversary has long sought to use its commercial products to export its totalitarian censorship regime to other nations, including the U.S.. That becomes even scarier in the dawning age of AI. Reuters reported recently on State Department tests that show Chinese AI models are "significantly more likely to align their answers with Beijing's talking points than their U.S. counterparts." At the moment, censorship appears to be most visible on issues of relatively minor importance to Americans, such as Tiananmen Square or territorial claims to islands in the South China Sea. But it's obvious how that kind of control could be exploited to much more inimical ends if China becomes the dominant provider of AI services to the rest of the world. The U.S. cannot reform the Chinese government's illiberal instincts. But Washington can take bold action to ensure that American AI remains at the cutting edge. It's heartening that President Donald Trump wants to lead on this issue, even if some of his policy actions over the past six months haven't been conducive to AI dominance. The administration published a lengthy AI action plan this past week, which provides a promising blueprint for accelerating development, retooling the federal government to harness its powers and promoting the use of American AI models abroad. It directs the federal government to seek and destroy regulatory bottlenecks; encourages "open source" or "open weight" models that offer more flexibility for users, as well as more transparency for researchers and regulators; nurtures a "dynamic, 'try-first' culture for AI" across industry; invests in skills training and research; develops performance standards; bolsters cybersecurity; develops complementary infrastructure such as electricity production and semiconductor manufacturing capacity; and beefs up export controls that hinder Chinese AI development. That's a long list. But it's a reflection of the challenges ahead. If anything, it is not long enough. Trump's proposal is only a down payment on the policy changes that must be undertaken to ensure AI dominance. It is critical to settle the copyright disputes over training data to ensure that intellectual property rights are protected. That problem goes unaddressed in the action plan. It is also essential to increase U.S. electrical generation and transmission capacity. While China's installed generation capacity increased by 16 percent in 2024, the U.S.'s has been stagnant for years. The Trump plan calls for stabilizing the existing grid and embracing "new energy generation sources at the technological frontier," but this section is vague and unsatisfying given the urgency of the task. Accelerating AI will require the administration to work with Congress and state legislatures on permitting reform and other initiatives to hasten infrastructure build-out. The administration will need to compromise on other policy priorities to meet the moment. Immigration, for example, remains critical to securing tech talent: The list of researchers recently hired by Meta for its superintelligence lab is heavy on first- and second-generation immigrants. Yet NeurIPS, a leading machine-intelligence conference, recently announced its annual gathering in San Diego will have a second physical location in Mexico City to cope with "skyrocketing attendance and difficulties in obtaining travel visas." The recent tax bill throttled renewable energy. This is a bad mistake when the U.S. needs an "all of the above" strategy to meet growing electricity demand. China, relentlessly focused on energy dominance, installed almost 250 gigawatts of solar and wind to its grid in the first five months of the year. The United States should be equally flexible, rather than letting partisan fights over climate change turn a vital part of the energy portfolio into a political football. Nor should the culture wars infect AI policy, as happened with Trump's recent executive order on Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government. The best that can be said is that it was not as bad as it could have been. But the risk that American AI will be too woke pales in comparison with the risk that it will be too underpowered against Chinese models. This is a waste of time and political capital, when the U.S. has neither to spare. U.S. freedom from government censorship should be a selling point for AI models abroad. The United States won't beat China by offering a competing censorship regime. That said, these are caveats, not killers. Overall, the president's plan represents an excellent start. But it is also only a start. There is still a very long race to run, and until it is won, the whole team needs to lock in.

Trump aims to get rid of AI regulations and finance exports to win AI race

President Trump gestures to the press at the end of a reception with Republican members of Congress at the White House on July 22, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP hide caption The Trump White House intends to get rid of regulations that artificial intelligence developers see as hindering innovation -- including measures related to boosting diversity, equity and inclusion, and curbing climate change. The push is part of a wide-ranging action plan aimed at ensuring the United States dominates the global AI industry. President Trump will speak about the plan later on Wednesday, and sign several executive orders related to AI. "We believe we're in an AI race -- it's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence, and we want the United States to win that race," said David Sacks, Trump's top adviser on AI and crypto. In total, there will be more than 90 policy actions taken in the coming year, said Michael Kratsios, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy -- though details on many of those actions are still in development, and will rely on input from the AI industry and others. Kratsios told reporters that federal procurement rules will be changed to allow only AI platforms deemed free from "ideological bias" such as DEI initiatives. He said "red tape" and regulations are limiting AI development for financial services, agriculture, health and transportation. "We cannot afford to go down Europe's innovation-killing regulatory path," Kratsios said. The White House wants to streamline permits for data centers and semiconductor plants and the energy that powers them. It will roll back some of the Biden administration's rules for subsidies for semiconductor plants related to DEI and climate requirements, officials said. The White House also plans to provide financing from the Development Finance Corporation and Export-Import Bank to boost use of American-developed AI abroad, though details were not immediately provided.

Trump just announced a new AI plan that scraps Biden's rules -- and gives Big Tech a green light

The White House has just released a sweeping new AI roadmap titled America's AI Action Plan, outlining how the federal government will try to supercharge AI development in the coming decade. The plan, backed by President Trump, prioritizes national security, infrastructure expansion and fewer regulations, which positions AI as the backbone of future U.S. economic and technological leadership. But this aggressive push for AI supremacy could come at a cost, particularly for states that aim to regulate AI more strictly, and other parts of the plan raise concerns about free speech. In short, the U.S. wants to build AI systems faster and export them under favorable terms, while locking down competitive advantages at home. At the heart of the plan are three pillars: One of the most controversial pieces of the plan is its deregulatory stance. The federal government wants to eliminate what it calls "burdensome red tape" and may withhold federal AI funding from states that implement stricter AI oversight laws. That means if a state passes strong privacy or data transparency laws around AI, it could lose access to federal money intended to support AI development, workforce training or infrastructure. For consumers, this could translate to a boom in AI-powered tools: smarter assistants, faster services and more innovation reaching your devices. It also opens the door for AI to play a bigger role in everything from healthcare and education to smart homes and city planning. But the plan also raises concerns about data privacy, environmental impacts and lack of public oversight, especially as AI systems become embedded in daily life. The plan does acknowledge workforce disruption. It outlines new programs to retrain workers for AI-adjacent jobs, especially in trades like electrical work, HVAC installation and robotics maintenance. Unlike earlier federal tech plans, this one appears to focus less on white-collar upskilling and more on supporting the physical infrastructure of an AI-driven economy. Trump's plan places a unique emphasis on combating perceived "ideological bias" in AI systems, an issue largely absent from Biden's formal policy language. The proposal accuses current AI models of being "programmed by the radical left" and calls for the creation of standards to ensure political neutrality in outputs. This includes potential mandates requiring AI models to disclose training data sources and undergo third-party audits for viewpoint bias. The emphasis on ideological balance appears designed to resonate with conservative voters concerned about fairness in emerging technologies. However, how these measures would be implemented and whether they can be reconciled with First Amendment protections remains to be seen. The Trump administration's new America's AI Action Plan marks a major departure from the Biden-era playbook. One of Trump's first moves was scrapping Biden's 2023 executive order, which focused on putting guardrails around AI. Biden emphasized safety testing, algorithmic transparency and civil rights protections through agencies like the FTC and Department of Commerce, Trump has scraped all of that, leaning heavily into deregulation. The new order frames Biden's approach as too restrictive and instead aims to strip away what it calls "burdensome" policies that could slow down AI innovation. Rather than requiring companies to prove their systems are safe or equitable, the emphasis is now on speeding up infrastructure development, including fast-tracking data centers and chip manufacturing plants. The America's AI Action Plan is a new roadmap for scaling U.S. AI capabilities, but it also sets up future legal and political battles over states' rights, privacy protections and AI accountability. As the federal government puts billions behind building the AI economy of tomorrow, the question remains if this will make our tech smarter and life easier or just less transparent.

White House releases AI action plan

Why it matters: "Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan" at its core gives industry the green light to move as rapidly as it wants, all in the name of global competition. The big picture: Industry has been eager for the long-awaited plan to get a sense of what direction the Trump administration wants to go on AI, and just how it aims to differ from the Biden-era focus on safety. * President Trump is set to appear at an event in Washington later on Wednesday with top tech leaders to discuss the document. * The plan lays out the administration's aspirations for AI with specific goals that officials believe can be completed in Trump's second term. Driving the news: As Axios first reported last week, the plan ordered in Trump's January AI executive order is largely about messaging a hands-off, pro-growth approach to AI. * The report focuses on three main "pillars" of accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure and leading in international AI diplomacy and security. What's inside: The report highlights four key policies: exporting American AI, promoting rapid buildout of data centers, enabling AI innovation and adoption, and free speech in frontier models. The action plan states that "the Federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds, but should also not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation." * It's a nod to what Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz tried to do via reconciliation, but faced too much backlash. * The administration will put out a request for information on federal regulations it views as impeding AI innovation. * Per the report, any state laws that the Trump administration deems in conflict with the federal standards set out in the Communications Act could be used as the basis to deny funding. * OMB will work with all federal agencies with AI-related discretionary funding to ensure "they consider a state's AI regulatory climate" when making funding decisions. AI and free speech: At the federal level, the plan calls to change procurement standards for AI deemed too liberal or "woke" and to update the AI risk management framework to delete mentions of DEI, misinformation and climate change. Encouraging open-source AI: The plan aims to help startups and academics get access to compute via private-public partnerships at NAIRR, Commerce, OSTP and the National Science Foundation. The plan also urges various departments to adopt programs that will train people to work in AI jobs and prioritize government investment in emerging technologies like drones and self-driving cars. Export controls: Per the report, "the United States must meet global demand for AI by exporting its full AI technology stack -- hardware, models, software, applications, and standards -- to all countries willing to join America's AI alliance." What we're watching: At an event later on Wednesday, Trump is slated to sign executive orders to give agency directives for the AI action plan. * The EOs are expected to focus on "woke" AI, infrastructure and exports.

Trump announces U.S. AI Action Plan. Here's 3 major takeaways from the sweeping executive order.

On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump unveiled the highly-anticipated AI Action Plan. The executive order focuses on three major areas, or pillars designed to ensure U.S. AI dominance and promote economic progress domestically. As expected, the executive order pulls back on regulations targeting tech companies described as "onerous" and "bureaucratic red tape," includes many provisions on expanding AI infrastructure within the country, and lays out a case for establishing U.S. AI technology as the global standard for "like-minded nations" over adversarial countries like China. The lengthy and broad-sweeping document will be the subject of in-depth analysis for days to come, but there a several key policies that immediately stand out. Within the document, the Trump Administration directs federal agencies to work with companies developing frontier large language models (LLMs) that "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias," which is the formal way of addressing the AI models deemed too liberal-augmented or "woke." The announcement mandates, "AI systems must be free from ideological bias and be designed to pursue objective truth rather than social engineering agendas when users seek factual information or analysis." As part of accelerating AI development, the executive order also directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to restrict federal funding for states whose regulations "may hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award." The executive order's plan also focuses AI infrastructure and boosting AI manufacturing in the U.S. This includes building data centers, enabling easier access for permits by deregulating certain environmental standards, and upskilling relevant workforces like electricians and HVAC technicians. This section also includes an alarming recommendation about using federal lands available for manufacturing data centers. A major pillar of the plan focuses on promoting American AI technology abroad. "The United States must meet global demand for AI by exporting its full AI technology stack -- hardware, models, software, applications, and standards -- to all countries willing to join America's AI alliance. The executive order also directs the Department of Commerce (DOC), the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and the National Security Council (NSC) to strengthen exports control of valuable chips to make sure they don't wind up in "countries of concern." Elsewhere, the order directs federal agencies focused on domestic labor and economics, to "study AI's impact on the labor market," and build programs for retraining of workers impacted by AI job replacement. Little discussed in the policy world until now, announcements addresses the sometime subjective and insufficient evaluations of AI models. Rigorous evaluations can be a critical tool in defining and measuring AI reliability and performance in regulated industries," the order said. "Over time, regulators should explore the use of evaluations in their application of existing law to AI systems." There's lots to unpack here and even more to assess how theses mandates play out. Stay tuned for more of our coverage on what this means for the AI industry and its broader impact on our world.

Trump on AI: "Whatever it takes" to lead the world

Why it matters: The AI Action Plan is focused on ensuring U.S. dominance over China and allowing companies to grow and scale quickly. * Tech leaders including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su appeared at an event hosted by the All-In podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum to unveil the plan. * Top level cabinet officials also participated in panels including Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. What they're saying: "Today we take historic action to re-assert the future, which belongs to America," Trump said. "America is going to win the AI race... we're going to work hard and we're going to win it." * "From this day forward it'll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence." * Trump touched on copyright concerns, which are not mentioned in the Action Plan: AI needs to be allowed to use material for training without worrying about compensating each individual author, Trump said. * "We need to have a single federal standard, not 50 states," regulating AI, Trump said. "We can't have a state with standards so high that it is going to hold you up." Earlier in the day, AI Czar David Sacks previewed more action on preemption of state level action. * "We weren't ready to declare a policy yet in the action plan, but I think it's something that's gonna have to be looked at over the next year or so," Sacks said. * OSTP Director Michael Kratsios meanwhile emphasized Congress' role. "A lot of the preemption discussion revolves around what Congress can or can't do. So we don't necessarily lean hard on that. We focus on things we can accomplish, right?" * Sen. Ted Cruz, who championed an effort to stop state level AI moratorium but faced too much opposition from both sides of the aisle, was in the crowd during Trump's speech. What's next: Trump will sign three executive orders related to the AI Action Plan.

White House plan signals "open-weight first" era -- and enterprises need new guardrails

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now U.S. President Donald Trump signed the AI Action Plan, which outlines a path for the U.S. to lead in the AI race. For enterprises already in the throes of deploying AI systems, the rules represent a clear indication of how this administration intends to treat AI going forward and could signal how providers will approach AI development. Much like the AI executive order signed by Joe Biden in 2023, Trump's order primarily concerns government offices, directing how they can contract with AI models and application providers, as it is not a legislative act. The AI plan may not directly affect enterprises immediately, but analysts noted that anytime the government takes a position on AI, the ecosystem changes. "This plan will likely shape the ecosystem we all operate in -- one that rewards those who can move fast, stay aligned and deliver real-world outcomes," Matt Wood, commercial technology and innovation officer at PwC, told VentureBeat in an email. "For enterprises, the signal is clear: the pace of AI adoption is accelerating, and the cost of lagging is going up. Even if the plan centers on federal agencies, the ripple effects -- in procurement, infrastructure, and norms -- will reach much further. We'll likely see new government-backed testbeds, procurement programs, and funding streams emerge -- and enterprises that can partner, pilot, or productize in this environment will be well-positioned." He added that the Action Plan "is not a blueprint for enterprise AI." Still, enterprises should expect an AI development environment that prioritizes speed, scale, experimentation and less reliance on regulatory shelters. Companies working with the government should also be prepared for additional scrutiny on the models and applications they use, to ensure alignment with the government's values. The Action Plan outlines how government agencies can collaborate with AI companies, prioritize recommended tasks to invest in infrastructure and encourage AI development and establish guidelines for exporting and importing AI tools. Charleyne Biondi, assistant vice president and analyst at Moody's Ratings, said the plan "highlights AI's role as an increasingly strategic asset and core driver of economic transformation." She noted, however, that that plan doesn't address regulatory fragmentation. "However, current regulatory fragmentation across U.S. states could create uncertainty for developers and businesses. Striking the right balance between innovation and safety and between national ambition and regulatory clarity will be critical to ensure continued enterprise adoption and avoid unintended slowdowns," she said. What is inside the action plan The AI Action Plan is broken down into three pillars: The key headline piece of the AI Action Plan centers on "ensuring free speech and American values," a significant talking point for this administration. It instructs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to remove references to misinformation and diversity, equity and inclusion. It prevents agencies from working with foundation models that have "top-down agendas." It's unclear how the government expects existing models and datasets to follow suit, or what this kind of AI would look like. Enterprises are especially concerned about potentially controversial statements AI systems can make, as evidenced by the recent Grok kerfuffle. It also orders NIST to research and publish findings to ensure that models from China, such as DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi, are not aligned with the Chinese Communist Party. However, the most consequential positions involve supporting open-source systems, creating a new testing and evaluation ecosystem, and streamlining the process for building data centers. Through the plan, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation are directed to develop "AI testbeds for piloting AI systems in secure, real-world settings," allowing researchers to prototype systems. It also removes much of the red tape associated with evaluating safety testing for models. What has excited many in the industry is the explicit support for open-source AI and open-weight models. "We need to ensure America has leading open models founded on American values. Open-source and open-weight models could become global standards in some areas of business and academic research worldwide. For that reason, they also have geostrategic value. While the decision of whether and how to release an open or closed model is fundamentally up to the developer, the Federal government should create a supportive environment for open models," the plan said. Understandably, open-source proponents like Hugging Face's Clement Delangue praised this decision on social media, saying: "It's time for the American AI community to wake up, drop the "open is not safe" bullshit, and return to its roots: open science and open-source AI, powered by an unmatched community of frontier labs, big tech, startups, universities, and non‑profits." BCG managing director Sesh Iyer told VentureBeat this would give enterprises more confidence in adopting open-source LLMs and could also encourage more closed-source providers "to rethink proprietary strategies and potentially consider releasing model weights." The plan does mention that cloud providers should prioritize the Department of Defense, which could bump some enterprises down an already crowded waiting list. A little more clarity on rules The AI Action Plan is more akin to an executive order and can only direct government agencies under the purview of the Executive branch. Full AI regulation, one that endures through multiple administrations, can only be achieved through Congress. Enterprises understood that the change in administration may mean less emphasis on AI regulations, and braced themselves for that impact. The Trump administration revoked Biden's EO, halting many of the projects already underway after it was signed. With the signing of the Action Plan, the Trump administration at least lays out its priorities and stance on AI development, which would help increase enterprise confidence in the technology. However, even in the absence of an EO or Congress-led regulation, enterprises were already building and expanding the AI ecosystem. Although there is some concern over the lack of rules and the uncertainty that comes with it, it was never going to stop businesses from being excited about a technology that promises to make their work easier. The plan, at least, makes it easier to grow more. "It lowers some external friction, like faster permits, more data center capacity, and potential funding. But real acceleration happens inside the enterprise: skills, governance, and the ability to deploy responsibly. Those who've already built that muscle will be best positioned to capitalize on the momentum the plan generates," PwC's Wood said.

Trump's AI plans include a time bomb for tech companies

The big picture: Trump's move could be the first of many long-feared efforts by governments around the world to require AI systems to toe political lines, setting up endless conflicts between tech firms and rulers eager to promote agendas and quash dissent. Zoom in: The plan -- and a related executive order on "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" -- insists that any AI model procured by a federal agency must promote "ideological neutrality." * The requirement poses thorny technical challenges and raises questions about who decides what counts as an acceptable answer. * While the executive order on AI model neutrality calls for large language models "that prioritize historical accuracy, scientific inquiry, and objectivity," it also singles out "DEI" as an example of "ideological dogma." And it follows an effort by the Missouri attorney general to crack down on chatbots that post results critical of Trump. * "Demanding that developers refrain from 'ideological bias' or be 'neutral' in their models is an impossible, vague standard that the Administration will be able to weaponize for its own ideological ends," the Center for Democracy and Technology said. Zoom out: Most of the 23-page Action Plan gives a green light to the tech industry, focusing on accelerating AI innovation rather than addressing concerns such as model safety, environmental risks and the potential for wealth concentration and job loss. * Its release follows a period of public comment after the cancellation of a Biden-era policy that focused on risks. * Trump also signed a trio of executive orders designed to support the plan with concrete action, including one focused on speeding up the federal permitting process for new power plants and data centers and another that aimed at promoting the export of American technology. * Trump's signing of the orders followed a long speech at an event hosted by the All-In podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum. During the speech, Trump called for doing "whatever it takes" to win the AI race, while also touching on everything from President Biden's use of an autopen to Ukraine to the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports. * Attendees of the event included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, along with Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Between the lines: In the speech, Trump also touched on two other issues that are at the top of the industry's wish list, but not directly addressed in the Action Plan. * On the pre-emption of state laws regulating AI, Trump said "we need to have a single federal standard, not 50 states," regulating AI, telling the tech executives in the audience: "We can't have a state with standards so high that it is going to hold you up." * Trump also nodded to the industry's desire to train AI systems on copyrighted content without having to get permission from or compensate content creators. Axios Tech Policy is covering every twist and turn in the White House and Congress' efforts to regulate AI. Get it in your inbox.

The real winners from Trump's 'AI action plan'? Tech companies

Millions spent by Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and others appear to have paid off as president vows to cut red tape Donald Trump's AI summit in Washington this week was a fanfare-filled event catered to the tech elite. The president took the stage on Wednesday evening, as the song God Bless the USA piped over the loudspeakers, and then he decreed: "America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape, so they can't move, so they can't breathe." The message was clear - the tech regulatory environment that was once the focus of federal lawmakers is no longer. "I've been watching for many years," Trump continued. "I've watched regulation. I've been a victim of regulation." As Trump spoke to the crowd, he addressed them as "the group of smart ones ... the brain power". In front of him were tech leaders, venture capitalists and billionaires, including Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang and Palantir's chief technology officer Shyam Sankar. The Hill and Valley Forum, an influential tech industry interest group, co-hosted the confab, along with the Silicon Valley All-in Podcast, which is hosted by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks. Dubbed "Winning the AI Race", the forum was an opportunity for the president to deliver what he called the "AI action plan", which aims to loosen restrictions on the development and deployment of artificial intelligence. The cornerstone of that plan are three executive orders that Trump said will turn the US into an "AI export powerhouse" and roll back some of the rules put in place by the Biden administration, which included guardrails around safe and secure AI development. "Winning the AI race will demand a new spirit of patriotism and national loyalty in Silicon Valley - and long beyond Silicon Valley," Trump said. One executive order targets what the White House calls "woke" AI and requires any company receiving federal funding to maintain AI models free from "ideological dogmas such as DEI". But the other two focus on deregulation, a major demand of American tech leaders who have taken an increasingly bullish stand on government oversight. One of those promotes the export of "American AI" to other countries and the other eases environmental rules and expedites federal permitting for power-hungry data centers. To get to this moment, tech companies have been forging a friendly relationship with Trump. The CEOs of Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and Apple donated to the president's inauguration fund and met with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, has become a close ally of Trump, and Nvidia's Huang has also cozied up with the president with promises of investing $500bn in AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years. "The reality is that big tech companies are still spending tens of millions of dollars to curry favor with lawmakers and shape tech legislation," said Alix Fraser, the vice-president of advocacy for the nonprofit Issue One. In a report released on Tuesday, Issue One looked at lobbying spending in 2025 and found that the tech industry has spent record-breaking sums. Eight of the largest tech companies spent a combined $36m - that's an average of about $320,000 per day when Congress is in session, according to Issue One. Meta spent the most, $13.8m, and has hired 86 lobbyists this year, according to the report. And Nvidia and OpenAI saw the biggest increases, with Nvidia spending 388% more than the same time last year, and OpenAI spending 44% more. In the lead-up to Trump's unveiling of his AI plan, more than 100 prominent labor, environmental, civil rights and academic groups countered the president and signed a "People's AI action plan". In a statement, the groups stressed the need for "relief from the tech monopolies" that they say "sacrifice the interests of everyday people for their own profits". "We can't let big tech and big oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' wellbeing, even the air we breathe and the water we drink - all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable rollout of AI," the groups wrote. Meanwhile, tech companies and industry groups celebrated the executive orders. Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Meta, Palantir, Nvidia, Anthropic, xAI and others praised the plan. James Czerniawski, the head of emerging technology policy at the Consumer Choice Center, a pro-business lobbying group, heralded Trump's AI plan as a "bold vision". "This is a world of difference from the hostile regulatory approach of the Biden administration," Czerniawski concluded.

AI's race in the dark with China

Why it matters: Similar "races" of the past -- like the nuclear arms race and the space race -- have sparked innovation, but victories haven't lasted long or meant much. The big picture: Both Silicon Valley and the U.S. government now agree that we must invest untold billions to build supporting infrastructure for an error-prone, energy-hungry technology with an unproven business model and an unpredictable impact on the economy and jobs. What they're saying: "America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it," Trump said at a Wednesday event titled "Winning the AI Race." * Policy experts and industry leaders who promote the "race" idea argue that the U.S. and China are in a head-to-head competition to win the future of AI by achieving research breakthroughs, establishing the technology's standards and breaking the AGI or "superintelligence" barrier. * They suggest that the world faces a binary choice between free, U.S.-developed AI imbued with democratic values or a Chinese alternative that's under the thumb of the Communist Party. Flashback: The last time a scientific race had truly world-shaping consequences was during the Second World War, as the Manhattan Project beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb. * But Germany surrendered well before the U.S. had revealed or made use of its discovery. * The nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union that followed was a decades-long stalemate that cost fortunes and more than once left the planet teetering on an apocalyptic brink. The 1960s space race was similarly inconclusive. * Russia got humanity into space ahead of the U.S., but the U.S. made it to the moon first. * Once that leg of the race was over, both countries retreated from further human exploration of space for decades. State of play: With AI, U.S. leaders are once again saying the race is on -- but this time the scorecard is even murkier. * "Build a bomb before Hitler" or "Put a man on the moon" are comprehensible objectives, but no one is providing similar clarity for the AI competition. * The best the industry can say is that we are racing toward AI that's smarter than people. But no two companies or experts have the same definition of "smart" -- for humans or AI models. * We can't even say with confidence which of any two AI models is "smarter" right now, because we lack good measures and we don't always know or agree on what we want the technology to do. Between the lines: The "beat China" drumbeat is coming largely from inside the industry, which now has a direct line to the White House via Trump's AI adviser, David Sacks. * "Whoever ends up winning ends up building the AI rails for the world," OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said at an Axios event in March. * Arguing for controls on U.S. chip exports to China earlier this year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei described competitor DeepSeek as "beholden to an authoritarian government that has committed human rights violations, has behaved aggressively on the world stage, and will be far more unfettered in these actions if they're able to match the U.S. in AI." Yes, but: In the era of the second Trump administration, many Americans view their own government as increasingly authoritarian. * With Trump himself getting into the business of dictating the political slant of AI products, it's harder for America's champions to sell U.S. alternatives as more "free." China has been catching up to the U.S. in AI research and development, most tech experts agree. They see the U.S. maintaining a shrinking lead of at most a couple of years and perhaps as little as months. * But this edge is largely meaningless, since innovations propagate broadly and quickly in the AI industry. * And cultural and language differences mean that the U.S. and its allies will never just switch over to Chinese suppliers even if their AI outruns the U.S. competition. * In this, AI is more like social media than like steel, solar panels or other fungible goods. The bottom line: The U.S. and China are both going to have increasingly advanced AI in coming years. The race between them is more a convenient fiction that marshals money and minds than a real conflict with an outcome that matters.

Trump's 'AI Action Plan' to mix tech industry wishlist with culture war attacks on 'woke AI'

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances.

Podcast, policy, and pomp in DC at the surreal celebration of Trump's AI Action Plan

Trump's alliance with Silicon Valley began with the support of podcasting venture capitalists, one of whom was later tapped to be Trump's AI and crypto czar. And so, as the Trump administration unveiled its highly anticipated AI policy plan on Wednesday, it seemed only fitting that the ceremonies and celebrations took the form of a live podcast in the nation's capital. David Sacks, Trump's AI czar, shared the stage with his cohosts from the "All-in Podcast" on Wednesday, walking through the various elements of the new 28-page AI Action Plan and interviewing a rotating cast of guests that included U.S. Vice President (and former venture capitalist) JD Vance, U.S. Director of Science and Tech Policy Michael Kratsios, and various tech industry bigwigs including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Sitting on plush white chairs and backed by American flags, patriotic music, and flashy videos of giant data centers and factories, the event's hosts (the podcast's self-described "besties") and guests discussed the AI arms race with China, supply chain risks, healthcare, education, and "giving the American workers superpowers." Artificial intelligence is "not destroying jobs," said David Friedberg, one of the podcast hosts and a venture capitalist. The media, he said, has created a false narrative that ignores the "immense job creation underway." As Vice President Vance came on stage, the audience of several hundred people rose to its feet and cheered. "We have the best hardware and software, but our edge is not something we can rest on our laurels," Vance said. "If we regulate ourselves to death we should blame our own leaders." The AI Action Plan at the center of the discussion was commissioned by Trump after he took office in January and summarily revoked the Biden administration's executive order on AI safety. Sacks, the AI czar, along with Sriram Krishan, a former VC at Andreessen Horowitz who currently serves as a senior policy advisor to the White House, produced the report over the past six months. The report contains more than 90 policy recommendations to spur the development of AI and maintain U.S. supremacy in the highly competitive technology. Among the report's recommendations: loosening federal and state regulations perceived as constraining AI development, increasing the number of AI data centers and the supply of energy to power AI, facilitating the export of U.S.-made technology to approved countries while limiting China's access, and taking steps to ensure that large language models used by the government are free of ideological bias relating to climate change, diversity, and other issues. The U.S. must win the AI arms race, said Sacks as the event kicked off. "The consequences of losing the race are unthinkable." Sacks said the AI report had three big pillars: accelerating innovation; building U.S. AI infrastructure; and leading in international diplomacy and security. Sacks, whose VC firm Craft Ventures has invested in startups including Airbnb, Reddit, and defense startup Anduril, said that he never expected to go into government until Trump came on the All-In podcast. Sacks threw a fundraiser for Trump at his San Francisco home in 2024. Wednesday's event, at Washington DC's neo-classical Andrew Mellon auditorium building where President Franklin D Roosevelt announced military conscription in 1940 and the North Atlantic Treaty was signed nine years later, made for a sometimes surreal display of the Trump administration's fusion of politics, policy, and entertainment. And it underscored the extent to which Silicon Valley's leaders are keen to foster good relations with the Trump administration. Other guest speakers at the event included Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, James Litisnky, the CEO of rare earth minerals company MP Materials, and AMD CEO Lisa Su. "We are seeing this incredibly large demand in AI," said Su, stressing the company's commitment to produce some chips in Arizona through a facility built by TSMC. "Today's AI action plan is an excellent blueprint," said Su.

Trump's 'AI Action Plan' ditches Biden guardrails, 'red tape,' wants chatbots to cut out their liberal bias

President Donald Trump has unveiled a sweeping new plan for America's "global dominance" in artificial intelligence, proposing to cut back environmental regulations to speed up the construction of AI supercomputers while promoting the sale of U.S.-made AI technologies at home and abroad. The "AI Action Plan" introduced Wednesday embraces many of the ideas voiced by tech industry lobbyists and the Silicon Valley investors who backed Trump's election campaign last year. The White House on Wednesday revealed the "AI Action Plan" Trump ordered after returning to the White House in January. Trump gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the "All-In" podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs, which includes Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan includes some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products. It also includes some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. The plan prioritizes AI innovation and adoption, urging the removal of any "red tape" that could be slowing down adoption across industries and government. But it also seeks to guide the industry's growth to address a longtime rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers: countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. Trump's plan seeks to block the government from contracting with tech companies unless they "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." A Biden-era framework for evaluating the riskiest AI applications should also be stripped of any references to "misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change," the plan said. The plan also says the nation's leading AI models should protect free speech and be "founded on American values," though it doesn't define which values those should include. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Asian and Native American men. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The plan aims to speed up permitting and loosen environmental regulation to accelerate construction on new data centers and factories and the power sources to fuel them. It condemns "radical climate dogma" and recommends lifting a number of environmental restrictions, including clean air and water laws. Trump has previously paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get its computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production, which will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." The plan includes a strategy to disincentivize states from aggressively regulating AI technology. It recommends that federal agencies "consider a state's AI regulatory climate when making funding decisions and limit funding if the state's AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award." Trump's Republican administration had supported a different proposal in Congress to block states from passing any AI laws for 10 years, but the Senate defeated it earlier this month. There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the "All-In" podcast. On Tuesday, more than 100 groups, including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates, signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances.

Trump's AI agenda is part doable and part impossible

President Donald Trump unveiled his administration's AI Action Plan on Wednesday, a sweeping policy blueprint that promises to accelerate American dominance in artificial intelligence while dismantling what officials call "woke AI" bias. But the ambitious agenda reveals a telling divide between what the government can deliver quickly and what may prove impossible to implement. "Whether we like it or not, we're suddenly engaged in a fast-paced competition to build and define this groundbreaking technology that will determine so much about the future of civilization itself," Trump said at Wednesday's AI summit. The plan's more than 90 federal policy actions fall into three distinct categories of feasibility: immediate wins like expanding AI contracts within the Pentagon and loosening export controls that leverage existing government authority; challenging infrastructure goals requiring massive private investment in data centers and grid modernization that could take years; and potentially unworkable provisions like rooting out "ideological bias" in AI systems, where officials have yet to define clear metrics for measuring the very "wokeness" they aim to eliminate. The administration's easiest victories lie in areas where Trump already holds executive authority, particularly in military and defense contracting. The Pentagon, which has a budget that will surpass $1 trillion next year, has moved swiftly since Trump's inauguration, awarding giant AI contracts to companies including Meta, Google, and OpenAI. Meta executives and other Silicon Valley leaders were sworn in as Army Reserve officers last month, creating unprecedented integration between private tech companies and military planning. These partnerships require no new legislation or infrastructure, just executive decisions to accelerate existing procurement processes. Eliminating what the administration calls regulatory red tape also falls within immediate executive reach. Trump has already revoked former President Joe Biden's AI executive order and can direct federal agencies to review and repeal rules deemed burdensome to AI development. The plan specifically targets diversity, equity and inclusion requirements in the CHIPS Act, which officials argue slow down semiconductor projects. While removing these provisions may face legal challenges, the executive branch has broad discretion over how federal programs are implemented and funded. The administration's infrastructure ambitions represent a far more daunting challenge, requiring massive private investment and navigating physical constraints that no executive order can overcome. Trump's plan calls for streamlined permitting to accelerate data center construction and grid modernization, but the reality on the ground suggests these goals will take years to achieve, if they're possible at all. The scale of the challenge is unprecedented. Data centers consumed more than 4% of American electricity in 2023, with projections suggesting that could rise to 12% by 2028, according to the Department of Energy. New AI facilities regularly request 500 megawatts or more, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Yet utilities ordering necessary grid technology like combustion turbines today won't receive them until 2029, and traditional grid buildout takes four to seven years under normal circumstances. The administration can expedite federal permitting processes, but it cannot solve the fundamental bottlenecks choking AI infrastructure development. Power grids across the country are struggling to keep up with explosive energy requirements, while land speculation has created artificial scarcity that inflates real estate prices. Even with government support, these infrastructure constraints represent physics and economics problems rather than regulatory ones. The Trump plan's promise of "streamlined permitting" can remove bureaucratic delays, but it cannot manufacture the turbines, transformers, and transmission lines that utilities need to meet AI's energy demands. Similarly, while federal coordination might help identify suitable sites for data centers, it cannot address the deeper challenge of building an electrical grid capable of supporting the AI economy's massive power requirements. The administration's simultaneous crackdown on wind and solar development further complicates efforts to rapidly expand electricity generation capacity. Those two sources accounted for 91% of all new power added worldwide in 2023, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the same technologies that energy experts say will prove most cost-effective for powering data centers. The most fundamental challenges in Trump's AI plan aren't logistical or financial -- they're definitional. The administration has built its entire strategy around goals that have no clear metrics for success, starting with the central premise of "winning the AI race." Unlike concrete objectives such as building data centers or signing defense contracts, AI dominance exists as a moving target without finish lines or scoreboards. The challenge becomes even more acute with the administration's promised crackdown on "woke AI." Officials have committed to blocking federal contractors whose AI systems exhibit "ideological bias," but they have yet to define what constitutes such bias or how it would be measured. When pressed during a briefing, senior officials could only cite diversity, equity and inclusion as "really the main" concern, offering no methodology for detecting bias or standards for evaluation. The administration appears to be crafting policy around a problem it cannot clearly identify, using enforcement mechanisms it has not yet designed. The administration's struggle to define bias becomes more glaring when considering recent examples. Elon Musk's xAI, which received a $200 million Pentagon contract as it positions itself as an alternative to "woke AI" companies, had to scramble earlier this month to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. The result could be arbitrary enforcement that depends more on political winds than consistent policy application. Unlike infrastructure bottlenecks or regulatory delays, these challenges cannot be solved through executive orders or increased funding -- they require the administration to define success in ways it has so far been unable or unwilling to articulate. The administration's confidence, however, remains unshaken by these definitional challenges. Trump dismissed concerns about measurable outcomes with characteristic bravado. "America is the country that started the AI race," Trump said. "And as President of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it."

Tech companies want to move fast: Trump's 'AI Action Plan' aims to remove 'red tape'

The Trump administration on July 23 laid out a plan that aims to make it easier for companies to quickly develop and deploy artificial intelligence technology. The initiative shows how Silicon Valley tech executives who backed Trump during the election are shaping federal policy that will impact their businesses as they compete globally to dominate the AI race. "Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to transform the global economy and alter the balance of power in the world," said David Sacks, the White House's AI and crypto adviser, in a statement. "To remain the leading economic and military power, the United States must win the AI race." Sacks is a co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Francisco. Tech companies have forged stronger ties with the Trump administration by donating money, showing up at high-profile events such as his inauguration and showcasing their U.S. investments. Shortly after Trump took office, OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank announced that they planned to invest a total of $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. Billionaire Elon Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, donated more than $280 million to the 2024 election and was tasked with slashing government spending. Apple, which has faced criticism from Trump for building its iPhones overseas, said it would invest $500 billion in the United States. The AI plan underscores how Trump is taking a different approach to AI regulation than his predecessor, former President Biden, who focused on AI's benefits but also potential risks such as fueling disinformation and displacing jobs. Trump had revoked Biden's executive order in January that placed guardrails around AI development. Tech companies started investing in artificial intelligence long before the rise in popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT, a chatbot that can generate text and images. But the emergence of more rivals has sparked a fierce competition among companies that are trying to release new AI tools that could reshape industries from health care to education. The rapid pace of technological development has raised concerns about whether the government is doing enough to regulate tech companies and safeguard the public from AI's potential dangers. Some fact-checkers have noted that AI chatbots can spew out incorrect information. Parents are worried that chatbots their children use could pose a threat to their mental health. But regulation has a tough time keeping pace with how fast technology moves. The government also has to balance concerns that too many rules can hinder how quickly companies can release new AI-powered products. As major tech giants from Google and Meta face OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, they're also going head to head with rivals in other countries, including Chinese AI company DeepSeek. The plan outlines removing "bureaucratic red tape" and "onerous federal regulation" that would make it tougher for companies to quickly build and develop AI technology. It also mentions revamping permits for data centers; infrastructure needed to power AI systems. Data centers house computing equipment such as servers used to process the trove of information needed to train and maintain AI systems. But the amount of water and electricity data centers consume concerns some environmentalists. Ahead of the plan's release, more than 80 civil rights, labor and environmental groups signed a "people's AI action plan." "We can't let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families' well-being, even the air we breathe and the water we drink -- all of which are affected by the unrestrained and unaccountable roll-out of AI," the competing plan said. The White House's plan also tries to address one of the biggest concerns about the rapid deployment of AI: the potential that technology could replace humans in some jobs. The building of infrastructure to power AI systems, for example, will create high-paying jobs for Americans, the plan said. "AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work -- not replacing it," the plan said. It also said that AI systems must be free from bias. The plan recommends that the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminate references to "misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change" in its AI risk management framework. The plan emphasized the importance of national security. It mentioned that the U.S. should export its "full AI technology stack" that includes hardware and software to its allies and partners but deny advanced AI to its foreign adversaries. Some tech executives quickly praised the AI plan. Box Chief Executive Aaron Levie said that the plan is "quite strong." "It has a clear mission to win the AI race and accelerate the development and use of AI by removing roadblocks or aiding adoption. Importantly, it focuses on the positive benefits of AI, which we're all seeing every day," he wrote on X. Fred Humphries, Microsoft's corporate vice president of U.S. government affairs, also praised the plan. "President Trump's plan will accelerate infrastructure readiness so AI can be built and used here, and help students and workers with skills needed to win in an AI-powered global economy," he said on X. 2025 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

White House Releases Trump's 'AI Action Plan' -- Here's What's in It - Decrypt

The plan promotes deregulation, open-source models, and export controls. The White House on Wednesday unveiled a national strategy to cement U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence -- drawing criticism from civil rights and policy groups who say it sacrifices safety for power. The "AI Action Plan" outlines the Trump administration's push to fast-track AI infrastructure, export American-made systems to allies, and roll back Biden-era regulations seen as obstacles to growth. The plan follows Trump's earlier launch of the $500 billion Stargate Project -- a private-sector initiative led by OpenAI, Oracle, and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank to boost U.S. AI infrastructure and growth. "This plan galvanizes federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally, ensuring that American workers and families thrive in the AI era. We are moving with urgency to make this vision a reality," White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said in a statement. Key policies in the AI Action Plan include: Matthew Mittelsteadt, a Technology Policy Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, called the plan a "mixed bag," praising its emphasis on rapid development compared to Biden-era orders, but warned of political overreach. "One theme that I think is a positive is the renewed emphasis on innovation," Mittelsteadt told Decrypt. "The point of this technology is to help people -- and that really should be the point of these orders." However, Mittelsteadt warned that tying federal contracts to government-aligned models risks politicizing AI development. "That's how you twist this space," he said. "Developers will start building to appease the administration." If American AI models begin reflecting political agendas, then foreign users may see them as tools of U.S. influence rather than a neutral technology. That could be devastating to U.S. credibility abroad, he said. "Anyone who wants to buy American models abroad will view our models as influenced by the US government, just as we view China's models as influenced by the Chinese government," Mittelsteadt said. "No one's going to want to buy these things if they're seen as tools of Donald Trump, and that is such a mistake." AI Action Plan also threatens to withhold federal AI funding from states with "burdensome" rules -- a move critics say could chill local innovation and create new constitutional fights. "I have no clue how they're going to define 'burdensome,'" Mittelsteadt said. "States aren't going to just sit there guessing what qualifies. They'll keep passing laws, and then we'll have messy legal battles." Mittelsteadt also cast doubt on the administration's ability to follow through on such threats, especially against tech-heavy states like California. "The administration talks about cutting off funding, but much of that funding goes to federal entities -- like national labs -- that are physically located in states like California," he said. "Are they going to defund a major lab over a state policy? There are a lot of question marks here. A lot of implementation would be inherently messy and, I think, inherently politicized." Eric Null, the co-director of the Privacy & Data Project at Center for Democracy and Technology, echoed that concern, adding that the AI Action Plan could potentially undermine effective AI regulation. "A lot of it is going to be harmful and counterproductive in ensuring AI is developed and used in trustworthy ways," Null told Decrypt. "For the FCC to carry out this directive, it would have to claim authority over AI in some form, which would be beyond its scope." Null also pointed to the policy's call for AI platforms to be "free from top-down ideological bias," arguing that it leaves room for partisan interpretation. "Ideological bias is hard to eliminate from AI, making enforcement tricky. While the rule is meant to apply across political lines, it's up to the government to decide what counts as bias," he said. "In the hands of a partisan administration, that could mean uneven enforcement -- labeling some views biased while excusing others. I'm not confident it'll be applied fairly."

Trump to release AI action plan that leans into Silicon Valley's ideas

US President Donald Trump is expected to release an artificial intelligence (AI) action plan Wednesday that has been six months in the making. Trump launched a review process shortly after his inauguration in January that gave his tech advisors six months to come up with new AI policies after axing former president Joe Biden's AI guardrails. A senior official told the Associated Press that the Act will include some familiar tech lobby pitches, like accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to build the data centres that fuel AI growth. It might also include some ways to combat the "liberal bias" the Trump administration sees in OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. David Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticising "woke AI" for more than a year, after Google rolled out an image generator that, when prompted to show one of the country's founding fathers, showed Black, Asian, and Native American men. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming.

White House unveils U.S. strategic plan on AI. Here's what it includes.

Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program. The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled an AI Action Plan aimed at maintaining U.S. dominance in the artificial intelligence race. The initiative is part of an ongoing effort the White House began earlier this year with an executive order removing AI guardrails imposed by the Biden administration. Mr. Trump is expected to speak about the new plan and sign related executive orders during a keynote address at an AI summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The unveiling will be co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks. "The goal here is for the United States to win the AI race," Sacks said during a press call with reporters Wednesday morning. The plan is backed by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and will be carried out over the next six months to a year, according to Michael Kratsios, policy director of the OSTP. "This is a watershed day for Trump to lay out the AI vision and make sure the U.S. stays ahead of China despite all the trade deal turmoil," said Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. The AI Action Plan focuses on accelerating AI innovation and building out AI infrastructure to ensure the U.S. leads in international "AI diplomacy," according to Sacks, who laid out the plan's major pillars during Wednesday's call. That includes expediting the construction of large-scale data centers, which house servers, networking gear and other technology used to power artificial intelligence. There are currently thousands of data centers dotted throughout the U.S. The majority are connected to the nation's power grid, and rely on massive amounts of electricity to operate. The proliferation of AI data centers has been cited as one of the drivers of burgeoning energy costs. The number of data centers is only expected to grow as technology companies ramp up funding on construction plans. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI and xAI all have major projects underway. In addition to investments in the building of data centers, the plan also focuses on "expediting and modernizing programs" for semiconductor fabrication plants, or fabs, and updating the nation's electric grid to support the enormous energy demands of AI supercomputing, said Kratsios. Another focus will be reining in what White House officials have called an "ideological bias" in chatbots. This is something Sacks, a former PayPal executive, has been highly critical of after a 2024 incident with Google's AI image generator, which created pictures of Black, Asian and Native American men when asked to show an American Founding Father. "We believe that AI systems should be free of ideological bias and not be designed to pursue socially engineered agendas," said Sacks on Wednesday. "And so we have a number of proposals there on how to make sure that AI remains truth-seeking and trustworthy." To that end, Kratsios said the plan will update federal procurement guidelines to ensure the government only contract with LLM developers whose systems "allow free speech expression to flourish." The plan will also focus on maintaining the U.S.' competitive edge in the global race for AI dominance as it competes with countries like China, which has been expanding its AI footprint. A senior White House official said the report supports export controls, to make sure "that our most advanced technology doesn't get into the hands of [other] countries." The official added that the plan calls for the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion and climate (DEI) funding requirements from the Biden administration's CHIPS Act. DEI regulations within the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act "burden the industry" and "slow down the delivery of critical projects," the official said.

Trump's AI action plan claims to chart 'a decisive course to cement US dominance in artificial intelligence'

The Trump administration today unveiled its AI action plan, in accordance with the President's prior executive order to "remove barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence." The key policies include: "To win the AI race, the U.S. must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships. At the same time, we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI. This Action Plan provides a roadmap for doing that," said the administrations "AI and Crypto Czar", David Sacks. That Orwell reference is likely in regard to the fourth point, "upholding free speech in frontier models." Quite how the US government plans to contract solely with AI developers who's systems are entirely 'objective' is beyond me, as, well, AI bias is a well-established issue, and I can't shake the feeling that it essentially means "models that agree with the US government's position on all things", but there you go. According to US secretary of state Marco Rubio, "These clear-cut policy goals set expectations for the Federal Government to ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology." Given recent developments, ie the loosening of restrictions that allow companies like Nvidia and AMD to sell high-end AI hardware to China, it seems that furthering the export of American tech to other nations is a key part of the US AI plan moving forwards. While the US is massively behind in chipmaking, in terms of designing the tech and implementing massive data centers to crunch those models it certainly seems to be ranging ahead. The second policy, "promoting rapid buildout of data centers" looks to address both those points, and may go some way towards creating yet more chip fabrication and data center facilities on US soil. Companies like Meta, OpenAI, and xAI are already building data centers as fast as possible (with Meta even going as far as to store new racks in tents outside its facilities), so it's difficult to imagine them expanding faster than they currently are. Still, there's money in them thar hills, and the Trump administration looks to be clearing the way to cash in on AI for everything it's worth.

Trump admin unveils AI strategy to maintain US dominance

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's administration unveiled an aggressive, low-regulation strategy on Wednesday boosting big tech's race to stay ahead of China on artificial intelligence and cement US dominance in the fast-expanding field. The 25-page "America's AI Action Plan" outlines three aims: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading internationally on AI. Overall, the administration frames AI advancement as critical to maintaining economic and military supremacy. Environmental consequences in the planning document are sidelined. "We believe we're in an AI race...and we want the United States to win that race," said the White House's AI point person David Sacks in a call with reporters. Trump was expected to formally announce the plan at an event later Wednesday and sign a series of executive orders to give key components of the strategy additional legal weight. In its collection of more than 90 government proposals, the plan calls for sweeping deregulation, with the administration promising to "remove red tape and onerous regulation" that could hinder private sector AI development. Much of that work has already been carried out through a Trump executive order repealing the AI policies of the Biden administration. The plan also asked the Federal Communications Commission to find ways to legally stop US states from implementing their own AI regulations and threatened to rescind federal aid to states that did so. The American Civil Liberties Union warned this would thwart "initiatives to uphold civil rights and shield communities from biased AI systems in areas like employment, education, health care, and policing." The Trump action plan also calls for AI systems to be "free from ideological bias" and designed to pursue objective truth rather than what the administration calls "social engineering agendas." This criterion would apply to AI companies wanting to do business with the US government. A senior White House official said the main target was AI models that gave attention to diversity and inclusion concerns in programming their model output -- reflecting the Trump administration's anti-"woke" agenda. A major focus in the plan involves building AI infrastructure, including streamlined permitting for data centers and energy facilities that would overlook environmental concerns to build as swiftly as possible. AI "challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today," the plan said. The administration, which largely rejects international science showing a growing climate crisis, proposes creating new environmental review exemptions for data center construction and expanding access to federal lands for AI infrastructure development. Job replacement Addressing fears that AI will replace humans and create mass job losses across entire sectors, the administration's plan says instead that "AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work -- not replacing it." The strategy calls for efforts to "counter Chinese influence in international governance bodies" and strengthen export controls on advanced AI computing technology. The plan also proposes evaluating Chinese AI models "for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship." At the same time, the strategy calls on the government to champion US technology in conquering overseas markets. These plans will help "ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. Critics of the plan said the policies were a gift to US tech giants that were scaling back their goals for zero carbon emissions in order to meet the acute computing needs for AI. "The AI Action Plan is yet another gift to Big Tech that clearly shows the Trump administration is again placing corporate interests ahead of the needs of everyday Americans," said Alan Butler of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping new plan for America's "global dominance" in artificial intelligence, proposing to cut back environmental regulations to speed up the construction of AI supercomputers while promoting the sale of U.S.-made AI technologies at home and abroad. The "AI Action Plan" embraces many of the ideas voiced by tech industry lobbyists and the Silicon Valley investors who backed Trump's election campaign last year. "America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape," Trump said at an unveiling event that was co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the "All-In" podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs, which includes Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan includes some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products. It also includes some AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Trump signed three executive orders Wednesday to deliver on the plan. They seek to fast-track permitting of AI construction projects, expand U.S. tech exports and get rid of "woke" in AI. Trump had given his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The plan prioritizes AI innovation and adoption, urging the removal of any barriers that could slow down adoption across industries and government. The nation's policy, Trump said, will be to do "whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence." Yet it also seeks to guide the industry's growth to address a longtime rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers: countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. Trump's plan aims to block the government from contracting with tech companies unless they "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." The plan says the nation's leading AI models should protect free speech and be "founded on American values," though it doesn't define which values those should include. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator. When asked to show an American Founding Father, it created pictures of Black, Asian, and Native American men. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. Chief among the plan's goals is to speed up permitting and loosen environmental regulation to accelerate construction on new data centers and factories. It condemns "radical climate dogma" and recommends lifting environmental restrictions, including clean air and water laws. Trump has previously paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "We will be adding at least as much electric capacity as China," Trump said at the Wednesday event. "Every company will be given the right to build their own power plant." Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get its computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production, which contributes to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. The plan includes a strategy to disincentivize states from aggressively regulating AI technology, calling on federal agencies not to provide funding to states with burdensome regulations. "We need one common sense federal standard that supersedes all states, supersedes everybody," Trump said, "so you don't end up in litigation with 43 states at one time." There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the "All-In" podcast. On Tuesday, more than 100 groups, including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates, signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate at the watchdog group Public Citizen, which signed the resolution, called the plan a "sellout." "Under this plan, tech giants get sweetheart deals while everyday Americans will see their electricity bills rise to subsidize discounted power for massive AI data centers," Branch said in a statement Wednesday. "Americans deserve an AI future rooted in safety, fairness, and accountability -- not a handout to billionaires."

No woke AI: What to know about Trump's AI plan for global dominance

US President Donald Trump has said he will keep "woke AI" models out of US government, turn the country into an "AI export powerhouse," and weaken environmental regulation on the technology. The announcements come as he also signed three artificial intelligence-focused executive orders on Wednesday, which are a part of the country's so-called AI action plan. Here is what he announced and what it means. 1. No Woke AI One order, called "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government," bans "woke AI" models and AI that isn't "ideologically neutral" from government contracts. It also says diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a "pervasive and destructive" ideology that can "distort the quality and accuracy of the output". It refers to information about race, sex, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism. It aims to protect free speech and "American values," but by removing information on topics such as DEI, climate change, and misinformation, it could wind up doing the opposite, as achieving objectivity is difficult in AI. David Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticising "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator. When asked to show an American Founding Father, it created pictures of Black, Asian, and Native American men. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, US Vice President JD Vance, and Republican lawmakers. 2. Global dominance, cutting regulations The plan prioritises AI innovation and adoption, urging the removal of any barriers that could slow down adoption across industries and government. The nation's policy, Trump said, will be to do "whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence". Yet it also seeks to guide the industry's growth to address a longtime rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers: countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. 3. Streamlining AI data centre permits and less environmental regulation Chief among the plan's goals is to speed up permitting and loosen environmental regulation to accelerate construction on new data centres and factories. It condemns "radical climate dogma" and recommends lifting environmental restrictions, including clean air and water laws. Trump has previously paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into US energy sources, including gas, coal, and nuclear. "We will be adding at least as much electric capacity as China," Trump said at the Wednesday event. "Every company will be given the right to build their own power plant". Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centres in the US and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data centre complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get its computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production, which contributes to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centres completely with renewables by 2030. The plan includes a strategy to disincentivise states from aggressively regulating AI technology, calling on federal agencies not to provide funding to states with burdensome regulations. "We need one common sense federal standard that supersedes all states, supersedes everybody," Trump said, "so you don't end up in litigation with 43 states at one time". Call for a People's AI Action Plan There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favourite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the "All-In" podcast. On Tuesday, more than 100 groups, including labour unions, parent groups, environmental justice organisations, and privacy advocates, signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Anthony Aguirre, executive director of the non-profit Future of Life Institute, told Euronews Next that Trump's plan acknowledges the "critical risks presented by increasingly powerful AI systems," citing bioweapons, cyberattacks, and the unpredictability of AI. But in a statement, he said the White House should go further to protect citizens and workers. "By continuing to rely on voluntary safety commitments from frontier AI corporations, it leaves the United States at risk of serious accidents, massive job losses, extreme concentrations of power, and the loss of human control," Aguirre said. "We know from experience that Big Tech promises alone are simply not enough".

White House releases broad set of AI policy recommendations - SiliconANGLE

White House releases broad set of AI policy recommendations The White House today released a policy paper with more than 90 recommendations on how the federal government should approach artificial intelligence. The document is called the AI Action Plan. Later today, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders that will implement AI measures aligned with the paper's suggestions. "The United States needs to innovate faster and more comprehensively than our competitors in the development and distribution of new AI technology across every field, and dismantle unnecessary regulatory barriers that hinder the private sector in doing so," reads the document. The first focus of the AI Action Plan is the process through which federal agencies buy AI software. To streamline the workflow, the paper calls on officials to create a so-called AI procurement sandbox. It's envisioned as a kind of algorithm catalog that would enable federal agencies to easily access multiple models and customize them when necessary. Some of the paper's procurement suggestions focus specifically on large language models. According to the White House, the proposed measures would only allow federal agencies to buy LLMs from providers "who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." A second set of policy proposals in the AI Action Plan seeks to promote the development of AI infrastructure. In particular, the White House is looking to streamline the permitting process for new data centers. Furthermore, the policy paper argues that officials should use AI to speed up environmental reviews of construction projects. To address the energy demands of AI data centers, the White House is proposing measures that would facilitate the "interconnection of reliable, dispatchable power sources as quickly as possible." Improving the transmission infrastructure that distributes this electricity is likewise a priority. In parallel, the White House will seek to remove "all extraneous policy requirements for CHIPS-funded semiconductor manufacturing projects." The push to simplify compliance tasks for chipmakers is part of a broader effort to reduce AI regulation. The White House will collect public feedback on federal rules that "hinder AI innovation and adoption," as well as work with agencies to "take appropriate action". The Federal Communications Commission, in turn, plans to scrutinize state-level AI rules. "While businesses may welcome reduced regulatory friction and federal support for computers, the approach risks underestimating public interest concerns (privacy, labor displacement, environmental impact)," said IDC senior vice president Matt Eastman. "IDC expects pushback from civil society groups and potential legal challenges to federal preemption of state AI laws."

US AI Action Plan turns technology into a political tool

The US has published its AI Action Plan, with the aim of securing American dominance in the technology, exporting that dominance to the world, and seeing off the threat from China. Likening the AI Spring to the Space Race against the Soviet Union in the 1960s, the Introduction says: The United States is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence. Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits. Just like we won the space race, it is imperative that the United States and its allies win this race. Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people. AI will enable Americans to discover new materials, synthesize new chemicals, manufacture new drugs, and develop new methods to harness energy - an industrial revolution. It will enable radically new forms of education, media, and communication - an information revolution. And it will enable altogether new intellectual achievements: unravelling ancient scrolls once thought unreadable, making breakthroughs in scientific and mathematical theory, and creating new kinds of digital and physical art - a renaissance. All of which we wait to emerge from the tide of AI slop and the scraped intellectual property of human creators, for which vendors' industrialized data laundering has offered no compensation to date. The Plan is built on three pillars: accelerating AI innovation; building American AI infrastructure; and "leading in international AI diplomacy and security", all of which bear the imprint of the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who stood shoulder to shoulder with the US President at his inauguration. However, while comparable strategies have focused on the technology itself, investment, regulation, and socioeconomic benefits - as the Plan does - Trump's strategy has some overtly political aims, which may make America's customers uncomfortable. The politics begins from the get-go. The Introduction says: We need to build and maintain vast AI infrastructure and the energy to power it. To do that, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape, as the Administration has done since Inauguration Day. Simply put, we need to 'Build, Baby, Build!' On that point, the data center infrastructure capital expenditure for AI alone will be in the trillions of dollars, giving the technology a carbon footprint equivalent to America's today. Cloud data centers already consume more energy than the whole of Japan, the world's fourth largest economy. Accordingly, the US energy grid must be updated and made more resilient, says the report - which (we know from Trump's previous announcements) means more coal, less wind, alongside predictive and adaptive grid technologies. The Action Plan then intensifies its political commentary: Our AI systems must be free from ideological bias and be designed to pursue objective truth rather than social engineering agendas when users seek factual information or analysis. AI systems are becoming essential tools, profoundly shaping how Americans consume information, but these tools must also be trustworthy. Yet the ideological bias and social engineering intent of the Plan are overt, surely a contradiction in terms. It continues: Led by the Department of Commerce (DOC) through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), [the recommended action is to] revise the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and climate change. Update Federal procurement guidelines to ensure that the government only contracts with frontier Large Language Model (LLM) developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias. Trump seeks objective truth, but only if it is in line with his political beliefs: climate change, diversity, equity, and inclusion do not exist for him, and must therefore be excised from systems - even though AIs have been trained on data from every culture, minority, and ethnic group, and on global scientific consensus on climate issues. With Trump AI, history and consensus must be revised at source and presented as automated truth. So, what about US attempts (and vendors' desire) to prevent regulation of the technology? That Budget aim was struck down, but the report offers alternative means of bulldozing the policy into action. It says: To maintain global leadership in AI, America's private sector must be unencumbered by bureaucratic red tape. US President Trump has already taken multiple steps toward this goal, including rescinding Biden Executive Order 14110 on AI that foreshadowed an onerous regulatory regime. AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level. The Federal government should not allow AI-related Federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds but should also not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation. To this end, it proposes several recommended actions, including: In short, if states oppose the plan or attempt to regulate the industry at local level, funding will be withdrawn - for AI programs, at least. A social engineering plan then, with the technology sector turned into a blunt instrument to deliver it. Or the White House has been seconded by the tech sector to ensure it is unimpeded in its efforts to own the future without recompense - including your data and mine. Take your pick. On 'AI diplomacy' the AI Action Plan adds: Led by DOS and DOC, leverage the US position in international diplomatic and standard-setting bodies to vigorously advocate for international AI governance approaches that promote innovation, reflect American values, and counter authoritarian influence. The report ends on page 24, with the words: 'This page intentionally left blank'.

How Silicon Valley billionaires shaped Trump's new AI agenda

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday.

Trump's plan to win AI race includes killing off 'woke' agenda and removing environmental barriers to innovation

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the United States will "win" the artificial intelligence race. He made the declaration before signing three executive orders aimed at expediting AI-related infrastructure projects, promoting and exporting American-made AI technology, and preventing "woke AI" in the federal government. Earlier in the day, the White House released a 28-page AI Action Plan, which lays out a detailed policy agenda to accelerate AI innovation, build AI infrastructure, and lead in international AI diplomacy and security. The plan paints a bucolic picture of sorts, in which American workers will benefit from the opportunities created by this technological revolution, including high-paying jobs and scientific discoveries, while the private sector is unencumbered by bureaucratic red tape and onerous regulations. But Trump also made clear that his AI policy marks a stark departure from the AI guardrails endorsed by President Joe Biden. During a speech Wednesday at an event cohosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In podcast, Trump took swipes at a number of policies endorsed by his political opponents and told the audience, "We're getting rid of woke."

Trump's 'AI Action Plan' smoothes the way for a bulked-up electrical grid

With the 'AI Action Plan' Trump pays back his Silicon Valley allies The Trump administration on Wednesday released its AI Action Plan -- a 28-page blueprint designed to accelerate America's AI industry and extend its global influence. Authored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, "AI Czar" David Sacks, and science and technology adviser Michael Kratsios, the document outlines a suite of tech-friendly directives, ranging from discouraging state-level AI regulation to opening public lands for new data center construction. That hands-off approach reflects the Trump administration's broader stance toward tech: minimal regulation in exchange for political support. To that end, the "action plan" directs all federal agencies to delete regulations from earlier administrations that could "unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment." The "plan" doesn't reprise the ban on state AI regulation that was struck from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as some had feared. But it tries to frustrate state AI regulation by instructing federal agencies to condition funding on how friendly the state's regulatory environment is to AI R&D. The plan also issues a vague threat against states by asking the FCC to look at how state AI regulations might "interfere with the agency's ability to carry out its obligations and authorities under the Communications Act of 1934." (That "Act" established the FCC and gave it control of broadcast licenses, wireless spectrum, and compliance enforcement.)

AI and copyright - the state of play, post the US AI Action Plan

Anyone looking to the US AI Action Plan for a statement on the use of copyrighted material in model training would have been disappointed this week. However, US President Donald Trump - whose Plan is an uneasy mix of bullish ambition, strategic goals, informed policy, and thinly veiled politics - offers these words when challenged on the subject: You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for. We appreciate that [copyright holders' views], but just can't do it - because it's not doable. Who "we" refers to in that statement is unclear: America, where dozens of copyright infringement lawsuits are ongoing against AI vendors? Or the wealthy Big Tech backers of his administration? On the surface, the race is between the US and China. But under the hood, it is fast becoming a combustion engine fueled with stolen data and fossils - a machine that may yet shake itself to pieces. So, perhaps we should remind ourselves of some important facts. The top six most valuable companies on Earth - in history, in fact - are all in AI and tech. Between them, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta already have a market capitalization of $12.9 trillion, roughly equivalent to the value of China's entire economy in 2017-18; or three times the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the third largest economy today, Germany, and half that of the US. Spend trillions of dollars on planet-heating, water-guzzling AI data centers to run the likes of OpenAI's frontier models - systems that (in Trump's view) will be powered by coal? No problem. But license some books when you can scrape millions from known pirate sources? Impossible, it seems. Whether US courts will agree with that absurd position is unknown. Early results have been mixed: Thomson Reuters won the day against Ross Intelligence, which scraped the company's Intellectual Property (IP) to create a competing legal intelligence service, but the plaintiffs in last month's judgments did not. However, Federal Judges were critical of Meta and Anthropic's behavior in those cases, and suggest ways in which future actions against vendors might succeed. Scraping free pirate sources may be indefensible in law, warns one Judge. The other notes that using creators' IP to set up automated competitors or generate near-copies of protected works might also be frowned upon - and the Thomson Reuters case emphasizes that view. Regarding copies, Denmark is introducing legislation this Fall to give citizens copyright over their own faces and voices, rules which recast deep fakes as IP theft. It's a smart idea, but it begs the question: if citizens' identities should be protected against AI - and they should - then why not their writing, art, and music? Surely scraping our lives' work is as much identity theft as AIs that clone our faces and voices? As I reported earlier this month, that view is broadly shared by the Republican Senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, and Democrat Senator from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal. Together, they are proposing the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act. Hawley says: Give every American the right to protect their own name, image and likeness and all their copyrighted material. How? Let them sue AI companies that take property without consent. AI isn't worth having if it doesn't protect our rights. (And citizens' rights were in the spotlight in the starkest of terms this week: US President Trump follows the AI Action Plan with an Executive Order against "woke AI", and any system that acknowledges Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)) To date, one of vendors' key defenses has been that generative AI transforms training weights and tokens into something new, a viewpoint accepted by one Federal Judge last month, but challenged by the US Copyright Office in its own report earlier this year. That report says: Unlike cases where copying computer programs to access their functional elements was necessary to create new, interoperable works, using images or sound recordings to train a model that generates similar expressive outputs does not merely remove a technical barrier to productive competition. In such cases, unless the original work itself is being targeted for comment or parody, it is hard to see the use as transformative. The document - which takes AI vendors to task on numerous points - is enough to lose the Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter her job, along with the Librarian of Congress, who oversees the Office. Alas, their dismissals are a grim reminder that the dice are loaded, and the game rigged in vendors' favor, no matter the cost to other industries. But that policy is now enabling a coup on the world's digitized content, as AI vendors such as Google wall off scraped data in search, so that users consume it within AI summaries instead of searching for the source. But as we have seen, there may still be avenues to success when rights holders take their fight for fairness to AI companies. It all depends on whether US President Trump has the power to set judgments aside if they go against vendors, as some surely will. All of which brings us to a less predictable element in the AI Spring: the public mood. Yes, subscription revenues have doubled year on year for people's choice OpenAI and its ChatGPT offering. But there is evidence that the public is nowhere near as tolerant of vendors' actions as policymakers would like. Earlier this year, a UK survey by Politico finds that three-quarters of the public (74 percent) believe that AI companies should pay for copyrighted data that has been scraped from the Web, with only nine percent saying it should be free. So, the public is 8:1 in favor of creatives' position on copyright. As an unpopular British Government shows every sign of bulldozing a change in 'fair use' rules into policy, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would do well to understand the strength of citizens' feelings on the subject. The public clearly doesn't appreciate the perception that Britain's much-loved creative sectors are being sacrificed on the altar of US Big Tech - against even the advice of trade organization UKAI, which describes Starmer's policy as unworkable, divisive, and damaging in a detailed report in the spring. So, what does that organization say now? Speaking this month at a Westminster Media Forum on AI and copyright, UKAI's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Flagg says: The main problem centers on the Government presenting a preference before their own copyright consultation ends. Well said: it is an outrageous and counter-productive thing to do. However, Flagg signals that the Government - privately, at least - expresses regret at a course of action that results in a storm of protest from UK creatives and their supporters: I think the Government now understands the strength of feeling and the support for copyright, and genuinely, they seem to be willing to engage as we scope out the challenges ahead. They say they don't have a preferred position anymore, and they're willing to review the consultation submissions before establishing that preference. Good news. However, a Government that seems to be willing to engage and is "willing to review" its own consultation are hardly statements that inspire confidence in a change of heart. Nothing Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle says recently suggests that No 10 is really listening. Indeed, the Government may be spurred to move even faster by the US' AI Action Plan. Even so, the creative sectors have an unexpected ally in a vendor spokesman such as Flagg. At the Westminster Forum, he reinforces a key point in UKAI's report earlier this year, which is drawn up in dialogue with senior spokespeople from Britain's creative industries: Current copyright law protects rights holders, and that requires these generative AI, foundational models to obtain permission for any copyrighted materials that they wish to access as training data. As a principle, this remains sound. But then he adds a bleaker note: We must consider two different timeframes, the past and the future. We can determine what the future looks like, and we should actively consider the principles that we want to uphold to build an industry that is both responsible and fair. However, we have limited control over what has already happened. Much data has already been scraped by generative AI companies, and some argue that we should treat these as historic cases that can be forgiven in an amnesty to secure future agreements and transparency. I think this will be one of the major debates we need to address, combining pragmatism with responsibility. Perhaps. But this will be a bitter pill for most of the public to swallow: remember, music company Suno admits to scraping nearly every high-res audio file on the internet. Should that really be forgiven, as though it were a minor transgression or an isolated incident? It is a strategic business decision: it is what its entire AI model is based on! Similarly, Meta is known to have scraped the LibGen library of millions of books rather than license that content. Again, that is a policy decision at CEO level - at least, in the belief of Judge Chhabria last month, as expressed in his copyright judgment. Companies have scraped other pirate sources, movie subtitles, YouTube, Netflix, academic research platform arXiv (which is perhaps the closest site to the Web's founding vision), and - in some cases - the entire pre-2023 internet. Can we really let companies that are more valuable than nearly every nation on Earth get away with that - simply because society might benefit at some future point, even as we drown in their AI slop? Europe doesn't think so. This week, the European Union (EU) published a template for the mandatory summary of all content used in AI training, under Article 53(1)(d) of its own AI Act. It comes into force next month and will force vendors to disclose their training data or face penalties. So, battle lines have been drawn. It seems that Denmark, the EU, and even some Republicans are lining up in a fight to give citizens greater leverage against the might of US AI vendors. And the signs are that the public is on their side. But the biggest obstacle will be US President Trump, whose AI Action Plan this month - and his subsequent Executive Order against "woke AI" - suggest he is too closely allied with US technology corporations to care what anyone else thinks. However, even that scenario is not without its upside: the public may see the obvious unfairness of such policies and begin to turn away from a technology that Trump believes is essential for US prosperity. So, can AI succeed at scale without public support, and with others expressing disgust and outrage at the direction of these policies? We will find out before the decade is over.

Something for the weekend - Trump Executive Order forbids "woke AI"

The world is run by old men in a hurry, observed Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times on July 23, as he cast a wary eye over the fact that more than half the world's population is governed by men in their 70s - figures who see their looming mortality as a spur to leave their mark on the planet, even if it means war or the deaths of thousands of civilians. But to that startling observation we can add another: that they are backed by supremely wealthy men: tech CEOs who seem equally desperate to remake the world in their own - often dysfunctional - images. Some are accelerating towards an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) they fear might kill us, seeking to automate every job except their own, or wielding imaginary hammers of justice against any opinion they fail to share. Granted, it was ever thus, as the lives of some emperors, kings, media magnates, and industrialists attest. But there is a difference: today's tech titans can directly impact the lives of billions of people and engage in social engineering at an unprecedented scale. Or alternatively, they can help politicians do it. Thus, we have the weird, if short-lived spectacle of (ahem) 'Roman saluting' Elon Musk in the White House; or Mark Zuckerberg in his $100 million Hawaii bunker defying an entire continent, Europe, with performative bro culture; or Sam Altman's colossal hubris and humble bragging - "here I am curing cancer or whatever"- while data laundering for clicks, and demanding trillions of investment... while burning through billions in return. Earlier this week I shared the opinion that US President Trump's Action Plan for AI revealed a hardcore of ideological intent - beneath some more reasonable aims, such as remaking the national grid, building the world's leading infrastructure, repatriating chip production, and securing America's dominance in the AI race against China (nothing wrong with those in a US national plan!). To some, that might have sounded like a bias of my own, or, at least, an overstatement of the facts, though I would point them towards words such as "we will continue to reject radical climate dogma" and "revise the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and climate change", not to mention threats to withhold states' funding. Of course, any national strategy is political in the broadest sense, yet the ideological seam behind the coal face was there for all to see. But less than 24 hours after the AI Action Plan was published, US President Trump said the quieter parts out loud, and proved my point in the baldest of terms. On July 23, he published an Executive Order, titled 'Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government'. It states: Americans will require reliable outputs from AI, but when ideological biases or social agendas are built into AI models, they can distort the quality and accuracy of the output. One of the most pervasive and destructive of these ideologies is so-called 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI). In the AI context, DEI includes the suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex; manipulation of racial or sexual representation in model outputs; incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism; and discrimination on the basis of race or sex. DEI displaces the commitment to truth in favor of preferred outcomes. A fascinating perspective, given that it expresses a belief that issues such as unconscious bias, systemic racism, and addressing gender imbalances in training data cannot even be acknowledged, let alone addressed. And in the US Government of a country, America, in which 42 percent of the population is not white. In this new world, any AI system that has been trained to mitigate historic biases, in employment, healthcare, or justice data, for example, would be deemed unacceptable. Consider the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) sentencing guidelines algorithm that was once deployed in US courtrooms. It used decades of pre-Civil Rights systemic bias against African Americans to suggest harsher sentences for black males and more lenient ones for whites. In Trump v2.0, such a system would now be deemed viable. And we should remember an important fact: so-called DEI schemes work for the majority, not just for minorities and marginalized peoples. This is because they are also about trying to make the world fairer for women, who make up over 50 percent of the population yet still earn 83 cents to the average man's dollar. In the tech sector specifically, nearly three-quarters of employees - and nearly all senior managers - are men, creating a significant risk that AI is a technology designed by, led by, and made for men, or at least with an absent female perspective. But even considering that possibility would now be deemed outrageous, which risks deepening those biases, not addressing them. The Executive Order continues: While the US Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace, in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas. This is a hall of mirrors policy, led by a US President who has busts of himself in his homes and in the Oval Office, where most leaders would have ones of their heroes or inspirations. Here is a leader who wants machines to reflect his views back at him, rather than offer a world of insights from centuries of human learning. On LinkedIn, Stephon Parker, a black American who is Senior Engineering Manager at the New York Times, says: This is code for don't talk about race, gender, or equity. Let's be clear: this is not about bias removal. It's about bias enforcement - protecting the status quo and codifying systemic ignorance into AI systems that will govern hiring, justice, healthcare, and access to opportunity. If you've ever trained a Large Language Model (LLM), you know: data is power. And this order mandates that AI must not be trained to understand or mitigate the historical, structural, and racial inequities baked into our society. The result? We are engineering digital redlining at scale. And the communities that will suffer most - again - are Black, Brown, Indigenous, and marginalized folks. This isn't just a technical issue. It's a moral failure. Well said. And one can't help but fear that Parker is correct. But I would add a further concern, which may more directly impact America's plans to entrench its AI dominance. Trump - a divisive figure and controversial figure, whatever your politics may be - is taking a huge risk in politicizing a technology that, its developers claim, is supposed to benefit everyone, everywhere, and usher in a new era of productivity and equality. And this means his Big Tech backers are taking a huge risk too, especially in the wake of their cavalier attitude to others' copyright. Now they will be forced to engineer the US President's biases into their systems, or risk losing huge US Government contracts. So, when we are force-fed American AI from every public cloud platform, as we already are, it comes with Trump ideology attached. Is that likely to spur its mass acceptance? Or will it repel as many people as it attracts? Something to think about this weekend. Have a good one.

Donald Trump declares US is going to 'win' AI race as administration unveils action plan

The plan comes as America attempts to maintain its edge over China, with both superpowers investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. Donald Trump has declared the United States is going to "win" the artificial intelligence race, as his administration unveiled its AI Action Plan. The new blueprint is designed to speed up the building of energy-intensive data centres - which run AI products - by loosening environmental rules, while also vastly expanding the sale of AI technologies overseas. The plan, which includes 90 recommendations, comes as America attempts to maintain its edge over China, with both superpowers investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. It calls for the export of US AI software and hardware abroad, as well as urging the removal of "red tape" that could be seen as stopping the industry from flourishing. In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Trump said: "America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it." He said the technological arms race with China was a fight that will define the 21st century. The president added: "We also have to have a single federal standard, not 50 different states regulating this industry in the future." And he said at the 'Winning the AI Race' summit that "America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape". An expansion in exports of AI products could benefit AI chip makers Nvidia and AMD as well as AI model giants Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta. Read more from Sky News: World court issues landmark ruling in climate court case Government mulls two-hour screen time limit for children During his time in office, former president Joe Biden brought in restrictions on US exports of AI chips to China and other countries which America feared could divert the semiconductors to the Asian superpower. Mr Trump rescinded Mr Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Mr Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via US AI chip imports. The Trump plan also aims to block the government from doing business with tech companies unless they "ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias". Mr Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, has been criticising "woke AI" for more than a year. Demand for power in the US is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as the number of AI and cloud computing data centres expands across the country. The tech industry has been pushing to loosen rules to get its computing facilities connected to power sources. But the AI building boom has also led to more demand for fossil fuel production, which contributes to global warming.

Silicon Valley's gamble to back Trump pays off after president unveils AI action plan

Silicon Valley's gamble to back Donald Trump just paid off. Big time. The president's 28-page AI strategy, "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan", is a streamlined, focused, and recommendation-heavy policy document, backed by three new executive orders. It reads as if it was written by Silicon Valley to turn its demands for AI into national policy - because it was. The man behind the plan, David Sacks, the White House AI and cryptocurrency tsar, is a founding partner of PayPal and a high-profile tech investor. With its call for deregulation, infrastructure investment and more relaxed AI export rules, the plan is designed to turbocharge big tech's bet on increasingly powerful generative AI. For a president dedicated to putting America first, it's a sensible plan. The dominance of US big tech, from social media to the fastest and best computer chips, is undeniable. Given the potential size of the AI prize, removing red tape to boost the development of AI is surely a good thing. Slashing environmental and planning requirements for AI datacentres and energy infrastructure to power them, then removing red tape around the development and use of AI in finance, healthcare, the workplace and scientific research will surely see America reap those rewards first and cement its role as the AI superpower. The ostensible threat to its dominance is China. By stimulating the development of the best AI models in the US, and removing blocks on the export of US-developed AI technology like certain high-performance computer processors imposed by the last administration, the plan hopes to embed US-built AI into the global economy ahead of Chinese technology. While Silicon Valley may have staged a coup in terms of federal policy, the plan doesn't necessarily fix its bet on AI. The likes of Meta, Microsoft, Open AI, Google, Apple and X are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI and its associated energy-hungry infrastructure. But, so far at least, have realised profits that are an order of magnitude less. Most companies and individuals are still trying to figure out how to use generative AI. The money behind that massive AI investment is starting to get nervous. Action plan doesn't guarantee success Critics of big tech go as far as to say the urgency of the "race" that the action plan is designed to win was dreamt up by Silicon Valley lobbyists to persuade an America-first White House to do their bidding before the AI bubble bursts. Trump's AI action plan should help calm their nerves, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee success. Despite promising to slash red tape and prioritise AI datacentres stuck in years-long queues to access America's ageing electricity grid, the AI action plan says nothing of who is going to finance it. American consumers may react badly if their utility bills soar to pay for the quintupling of energy infrastructure America's AI industry is forecast to require, especially if the AI isn't benefiting them. As written, the AI action plan doesn't seem particularly concerned about that at all. It mentions re-training for workers displaced by AI, but no mechanism to pay for it. More importantly, it vows to remove regulations that limit the adoption of AI, to the point of threatening to remove federal funding from states that do. Read more from Sky News: US and Japan agree trade deal - EU more optimistic Man who killed four university students jailed for life Some of those laws might be holding back the adoption of technology that could benefit consumers or make local government more efficient. Many of them, however, protect consumers by ensuring their data isn't exploited, tech firms don't steal their intellectual property to improve their AI, their access to healthcare or insurance isn't unfairly controlled by an algorithm, or their local environment isn't destroyed by data centres' insatiable demand for energy and water for cooling. Ordinary Americans may end up serving AI, not the other way round.

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances. ___ Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Blocking 'woke AI' from tech contractors Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Streamlining AI data center permits Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." A new approach to AI exports? It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. Who benefits from Trump's AI action plan There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances. ___ Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Trump's AI plan eases data center rules, strips federal DEI guidelines

The White House on Wednesday released its plan to make the United States a global leader in artificial intelligence research and development. US President Donald Trump released his plan to make the United States the "world capital" of artificial intelligence (AI) on Wednesday, outlining steps to ease data center regulations, revise federal content standards and prioritize government contracts for select AI developers. The report, published by the White House, presents a three-pillar plan, with initiatives to encourage open-source AI development for applications across law, healthcare, defense, science, education and manufacturing. One of the plan's key policy goals is to "protect freedom of speech" and online expression within AI models. According to the document, the free speech initiative will be led by the Department of Commerce (DOC), which will work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to "eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." Despite the stated goal of encouraging open-source AI development, the report also outlined a provision to award government contracts exclusively to "frontier large language model (LLM) developers." The report did not define what qualifies as a "frontier" AI developer. Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to make America the "world capital" of AI development, which includes strengthening the US energy grid to provide the immense power needed for AI. Related: Why I won't invest in companies that ignore AI -- Kevin O'Leary The Trump administration wrote that accelerating AI infrastructure through the construction of data centers is central to the plan. This expedited approval process for AI data centers includes re-categorizing the high-performance computing facilities under the revamped National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and relaxing the permitting requirements under existing regulations. Under the plan, AI data centers would qualify for expedited permitting approval, despite previous stipulations laid out in the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Additionally, the strategy seeks to "stabilize the grid of today as much as possible," by developing alternative energy-generation technologies such as nuclear fusion and fission. Finally, the plan contains objectives to bring semiconductor manufacturing, central to the creation of AI and computer processors, back to the US. "To succeed in the global AI competition, America must do more than promote AI within its own borders. The United States must also drive adoption of American AI systems, computing hardware, and standards throughout the world," the report reads. This includes strengthening AI export controls and trade policies through a collaboration between the US Trade and Development Agency, the Export-Import Bank, the US International Development Finance Corporation, the Department of State and the Department of Commerce.

Trump administration's new artificial intelligence plan focuses on deregulation, beating China

The plan outlines over 90 federal actions focused on expanding AI in America. The White House on Wednesday released its promised "AI Action Plan," a sweeping set of policy proposals aimed at boosting the United States' goal for dominance in artificial intelligence through sweeping deregulation. The plan was developed by the Trump administration's AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The 24-page plan outlines over 90 federal actions focused on three areas of focus: increasing private-sector innovation, expanding AI-related infrastructure and exporting American AI. It follows President Donald Trump's January executive order directing the creation of an "AI Action Plan" within 180 days. The proposals appear to break from the Biden administration's more safety-first AI framework, but White House officials cast the strategy as essential to "winning the AI race" against global competitors, especially China. The new plan comes as consumer advocates warn it gives tech companies outsized influence and effectively lets them write their own rules. Public Citizen called it "a corporate giveaway." "The Trump administration's reckless AI agenda prioritizes corporate profits over public safety. The administration plans to give billions to Big Tech so they can burn even more dirty energy, release untested products, and rush into the AI era without accountability to the American public," the group said in a statement. Trump is expected to issue executive orders tied to the plan's priorities. The president on Wednesday will appear at the "Winning the AI Race" event, hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All‑In podcast, which is co-hosted by Sacks. The plan aims to accelerate AI Innovation by cutting regulations, pushing for private-sector adoption of AI technologies and relying on the private sector to recommend regulatory barriers to cut. Building and expanding AI infrastructure in America is also among the priorities of the proposal. This means fast-tracking permits for the creation of data centers, removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and climate requirements, as well as investing in AI-related workforce training. Additionally, the plan recommends, in the name of protecting "free speech" and "American values," to remove references to misinformation, DEI and climate change from federal AI safety guidelines. The plan, however, does not address the use of copyrighted data for AI training, which has emerged as a key issue for AI and the basis for lawsuits. When asked about this, a senior official told ABC News the issue is currently before the courts and beyond the scope of executive action, stating: "Fair use is the law of the land."

Trump's order to block 'woke' AI in government encourages tech giants to censor their chatbots

Tech companies selling AI to the federal government now face a new challenge: proving their chatbots aren't "woke." Tech companies looking to sell their artificial intelligence technology to the federal government must now contend with a new regulatory hurdle: proving their chatbots aren't "woke." President Donald Trump's sweeping new plan to counter China in achieving "global dominance" in AI promises to cut regulations and cement American values into the AI tools increasingly used at work and home. But one of Trump's three AI executive orders signed Wednesday -- the one "preventing woke AI in the federal government" -- marks the first time the U.S. government has explicitly tried to shape the ideological behavior of AI. Several leading providers of the AI language models targeted by the order -- products like Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot -- have so far been silent on Trump's anti-woke directive, which still faces a study period before it gets into official procurement rules. While the tech industry has largely welcomed Trump's broader AI plans, the anti-woke order forces the industry to leap into a culture war battle -- or try their best to quietly avoid it. "It will have massive influence in the industry right now," especially as tech companies are already capitulating to other Trump administration directives, said civil rights advocate Alejandra Montoya-Boyer, senior director of The Leadership Conference's Center for Civil Rights and Technology. The move also pushes the tech industry to abandon years of work to combat the pervasive forms of racial and gender bias that studies and real-world examples have shown to be baked into AI systems. "First off, there's no such thing as woke AI," Montoya-Boyer said. "There's AI technology that discriminates and then there's AI technology that actually works for all people." Molding the behaviors of AI large language models is challenging because of the way they're built and the inherent randomness of what they produce. They've been trained on most of what's on the internet, reflecting the biases of all the people who've posted commentary, edited a Wikipedia entry or shared images online. "This will be extremely difficult for tech companies to comply with," said former Biden administration official Jim Secreto, who was deputy chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, an architect of many of President Joe Biden's AI industry initiatives. "Large language models reflect the data they're trained on, including all the contradictions and biases in human language." Tech workers also have a say in how they're designed, from the global workforce of annotators who check their responses to the Silicon Valley engineers who craft the instructions for how they interact with people. Trump's order targets those "top-down" efforts at tech companies to incorporate what it calls the "destructive" ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion into AI models, including "concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism." The directive has invited comparison to China's heavier-handed efforts to ensure that generative AI tools reflect the core values of the ruling Communist Party. Secreto said the order resembles China's playbook in "using the power of the state to stamp out what it sees as disfavored viewpoints." The method is different, with China relying on direct regulation by auditing AI models, approving them before they are deployed and requiring them to filter out banned content such as the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989. Trump's order doesn't call for any such filters, relying on tech companies to instead show that their technology is ideologically neutral by disclosing some of the internal policies that guide the chatbots. "The Trump administration is taking a softer but still coercive route by using federal contracts as leverage," Secreto said. "That creates strong pressure for companies to self-censor in order to stay in the government's good graces and keep the money flowing." The order's call for "truth-seeking" AI echoes the language of the president's one-time ally and adviser Elon Musk, who has made it the mission of the Grok chatbot made by his company xAI. But whether Grok or its rivals will be favored under the new policy remains to be seen. Despite a "rhetorically pointed" introduction laying out the Trump administration's problems with DEI, the actual language of the order's directives shouldn't be hard for tech companies to comply with, said Neil Chilson, a Republican former chief technologist for the Federal Trade Commission. "It doesn't even prohibit an ideological agenda," just that any intentional methods to guide the model be disclosed, said Chilson, head of AI policy at the nonprofit Abundance Institute. "Which is pretty light touch, frankly." Chilson disputes comparisons to China's cruder modes of AI censorship. "There is nothing in this order that says that companies have to produce or cannot produce certain types of output," he said. "It says developers shall not intentionally encode partisan or ideological judgments." With their AI tools already widely used in the federal government, tech companies have reacted cautiously. OpenAI on Thursday said it is awaiting more detailed guidance but believes its work to make ChatGPT objective already makes the technology consistent with Trump's directive. Microsoft, a major supplier of online services to the government, declined to comment. Musk's xAI, through spokesperson Katie Miller, a former Trump official, pointed to a company comment praising Trump's AI announcements but didn't address the procurement order. xAI recently announced it was awarded a U.S. defense contract for up to $200 million, just days after Grok publicly posted a barrage of antisemitic commentary that praised Adolf Hitler. Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Palantir didn't respond to emailed requests for comment Thursday. The ideas behind the order have bubbled up for more than a year on the podcasts and social media feeds of Trump's top AI adviser David Sacks and other influential Silicon Valley venture capitalists, many of whom endorsed Trump's presidential campaign last year. Their ire centered on Google's February 2024 release of an AI image-generating tool that produced historically inaccurate images before the tech giant took down and fixed the product. Google later explained that the errors -- including generating portraits of Black, Asian and Native American men when asked to show American Founding Fathers -- were the result of an overcompensation for technology that, left to its own devices, was prone to favoring lighter-skinned people because of pervasive bias in the systems. Trump allies alleged that Google engineers were hard-coding their own social agenda into the product. "It's 100% intentional," said prominent venture capitalist and Trump adviser Marc Andreessen on a podcast in December. "That's how you get Black George Washington at Google. There's override in the system that basically says, literally, 'Everybody has to be Black.' Boom. There's squads, large sets of people, at these companies who determine these policies and write them down and encode them into these systems." Sacks credited a conservative strategist who has fought DEI initiatives at colleges and workplaces for helping to draft the order. "When they asked me how to define 'woke,' I said there's only one person to call: Chris Rufo. And now it's law: the federal government will not be buying WokeAI," Sacks wrote on X. Rufo responded that he helped "identify DEI ideologies within the operating constitutions of these systems." But some who agreed that Biden went too far promoting DEI also worry that Trump's new order sets a bad precedent for future government efforts to shape AI's politics. "The whole idea of achieving ideological neutrality with AI models is really just unworkable," said Ryan Hauser of the Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank. "And what do we get? We get these frontier labs just changing their speech to meet the political requirements of the moment."

From Tech Podcasts to Policy: Trump's New AI Plan Leans Heavily on Silicon Valley Industry Ideas

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data center buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Blocking 'woke AI' from tech contractors Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Latino and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new $200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Streamlining AI data center permits Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centers in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data center complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centers completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data center eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centers could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." A new approach to AI exports? It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. Who benefits from Trump's AI action plan There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances. ___ Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Trump to Outline AI Priorities Amid Tech Battle With China

By Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper (Reuters) -The Trump administration is set to release a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to relax American rules governing the industry at the center of a technological arms race between economic rivals the U.S. and China. President Donald Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the U.S. investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. According to a summary seen by Reuters, the plan calls for the export of U.S. AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from former President Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. Top administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett are also expected to join the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast, according to an event schedule reviewed by Reuters. Trump may incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. The event will be hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump's campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The new AI plan will seek to bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate, according to the summary. The Trump administration will also promote open-source and open-weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department, according to the summary. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, in stark contrast to Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. In May, Trump announced deals with the United Arab Emirates that gave the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the U.S. after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Jamie Freed)

White House Unveils Artificial Intelligence Policy Plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House released an artificial intelligence (AI) policy plan on Wednesday spelling out priorities for the U.S. to achieve "global dominance" in the sector. U.S. President Donald Trump's plan calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify. The plan also calls for the Commerce Department to research Chinese AI models for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship. As previously reported by Reuters, it adds the federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with "burdensome" regulations. (Reporting by Chris Sanders, writing by Maiya Keidan)

Trump administration releases plan for winning the 'AI race'

The Trump administration unveiled Wednesday a framework for its artificial intelligence (AI) policy, placing a heavy emphasis on boosting U.S. innovation, building out data center infrastructure and promoting American technology abroad. The 28-page AI Action Plan lays out the administration's approach to the rapidly developing technology, putting forward more than 90 policy actions for "near-term execution" by the federal government. "We believe we're in an AI race," White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks told reporters on a call Wednesday morning. "There's a global competition now to lead on artificial intelligence, and we want the United States to win that race." "AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and for national security," he continued. "So, it is very important that that American continue to be the dominant power in AI." The plan seeks to remove what the Trump administration deems as "onerous" regulations at both the federal and state level. This includes limiting funding to states over their AI rules, as well as tasking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with evaluating whether certain state AI regulations interfere with its mandate. The framework also calls for a review of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) investigations launched under the Biden administration "to ensure that they do not advance theories of liability that unduly burden AI innovation." "We cannot afford to go down Europe's innovation-killing regulatory path," said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "Federal agencies will now review their rules on the books and repeal those that injure AI development and deployment across industries from financial services and agriculture to health and transportation," he added, noting they will seek input from industry as well. The AI Action Plan also directs the Commerce Department to revise an AI risk framework to remove references to misinformation, climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and calls for an update to federal procurement guidelines limiting contracts to AI systems deemed "objective and free from top-down ideological bias." The framework separately focuses on boosting the development of AI data center and energy infrastructure. It seeks to provide data centers with wide-ranging exclusions from or permits for federal environment regulations, in addition to generally expediting permitting efforts. It also calls for making federal land available to build data centers and the necessary power generation infrastructure.

How Trump's AI Plan Would Cut Regulation and Speed Up Adoption

After six months of buildup, the Trump administration has released its AI Action Plan, detailing Trump's vision for an America that "dominates" the artificial intelligence industry. The 28-page plan makes several recommendations for actions by federal agencies, such as removing "onerous regulations," exploring the potential of building AI infrastructure on federal lands, and creating "regulatory sandboxes" in which startups can responsibly test AI tools. The action plan, which was masterminded by presidential science and technology assistant Michael Kratsios, special AI and crypto advisor David Sacks, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, writes that the United States is in a desperate race to establish itself as the dominant player in the world of AI, much like the space race of the '60s. The advisors wrote that AI will usher in a new industrial revolution and artistic renaissance, but only if the United States maintains and extends its lead. Here's the three big takeaways that entrepreneurs need to know about Trump's AI plan. According to the plan, "AI is far too important to smother in bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or Federal level." In January, Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order that had directed federal agencies to study AI and prepare regulatory recommendations. The plan recommends that the Office of Science and Technology Policy launch a request for information from businesses about "current Federal regulations that hinder AI innovation and adoption, and work with relevant Federal agencies to take appropriate action." Simultaneously, the plan directs the Office of Management and Budget to work with federal agencies to "identify, revise, or repeal regulations, rules, memoranda, administrative orders, guidance documents, policy statements, and interagency agreements that unnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment." To discourage state-level regulations, the plan calls for federal agencies with discretionary AI-related funding programs to "limit funding if the state's AI regulatory regimes may hinder the effectiveness of that funding or award." This is the White House's way of enforcing its vision for a lax regulatory environment across individual states after Congress got rid of a stipulation in Trump's recently-signed spending bill which would've barred states from regulating AI for 10 years. The plan also calls for federal agencies to use their powers to ensure that the most powerful AI models are "objective and free from top-down ideological bias." To do this, the Trump administration recommends revising the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) AI risk management framework to remove "references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change." Currently, the words "misinformation" and "climate change" don't appear in the framework, although diversity, equity, and inclusion do. In general, the action plan is much more focused on removing barriers to AI innovation than safeguarding individuals from AI-caused harm. The word "safety" only appears once in the plan. That's in sharp contrast to Biden's AI executive order, in which the word "safety" appeared 25 times. According to the plan, the biggest bottleneck to realizing AI's potential is "the limited and slow adoption of AI, particularly within large, established organizations." To encourage faster adoption of the tech, the plan suggests creating "regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of Excellence around the country." These entities would serve as digital spaces in which startups and large enterprises can securely deploy and test AI tools. The plan also calls for NIST to launch domain-specific efforts aimed at convincing individual industries to adopt AI tools, such as in healthcare and agriculture, by measuring "how much AI increases productivity at realistic tasks in those domains." The Trump administration is also calling for the Department of Communications to increase the rate of adoption of open-source and open-weight AI models by small and medium-sized businesses. Open-source and open-weight models are free for individuals to download, modify, and run, making them an invaluable resource for startups without the resources necessary to pay for powerful closed-source models like the ones offered by OpenAI and Anthropic. The plan states that developing open models in the United States is key not just for AI adoption, but for America's AI dominance. If American-made open models gain international popularity, they "could become global standards in some areas of business and in academic research worldwide," giving them "geostrategic value." According to The New York Times, later today Trump is expected to sign AI-focused executive orders and give a speech outlining his AI vision. The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

Make AI Great Again? Trump's Controversial Vision to Lead the Global Tech Race

You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. In a sweeping move that signals the United States' ambitions to dominate the global artificial intelligence race, President Donald Trump has unveiled a bold -- and controversial -- AI roadmap aimed at fueling innovation, eliminating "ideological bias," and stripping away federal oversight he deems restrictive. The newly released AI Action Plan, a 28-page document outlining more than 90 policy directives, is being positioned as a turning point for the future of AI in the U.S. -- and a call to arms for both Silicon Valley and Washington's regulatory machinery. "We believe we're in an AI race, and we want the United States to win that race," said Trump's crypto and tech advisor David Sacks, echoing what has become a central theme of the second Trump administration: AI supremacy as both economic strategy and national security imperative. The Trump administration's plan calls for building out American data center infrastructure, boosting AI exports, and encouraging public and private sector adoption of machine learning technologies. But it goes further -- mandating a full-scale review of federal policies that may hinder AI development, and explicitly calling for the removal of what the administration terms "woke" or "ideologically biased" AI systems. "American development of AI systems must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas," the White House declared, in language that critics see as a thinly veiled rebuke of tech sector ethics guidelines introduced under Biden. Three executive orders tied to the plan are expected to be signed this week: one promoting international export of U.S.-developed AI tech; one targeting ideological content in AI systems; and one aimed at removing barriers to deployment inside government agencies. Trump's administration argues that with the right policy tools -- and minimal red tape -- the United States can secure its place as the global AI leader. While business leaders may welcome efforts to accelerate AI deployment and infrastructure, critics argue the roadmap prioritizes corporate dominance over public good. "The White House AI Action Plan was written by and for tech billionaires," said Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute. "It does little to address the real risks of AI, from surveillance to systemic discrimination." Others see the plan as a direct rollback of Biden-era safeguards. Just two years ago, President Biden signed a historic executive order calling for robust safety standards and responsible AI use in government -- an order that Trump rescinded within days of returning to office. "This is a play for speed, not safety," said Jim Secreto, a former Biden administration official. "Promoting aggressive AI exports without reasonable controls strengthens China's hand and undermines trust in American technology." Ironically, just weeks before unveiling the plan, the Trump administration reversed a ban on Nvidia's high-end AI chip exports to China, a move many observers saw as a concession to business interests. For entrepreneurs, especially in AI, fintech, cloud infrastructure, and data analytics, the roadmap signals open season. Reduced regulation, government adoption, and export promotion could lead to major windfalls for early-stage and growth companies alike. "This could unlock billions in public sector contracts and private sector partnerships," said a venture capital partner in San Francisco. "It's a gold rush for AI startups -- if you're on the right side of the political narrative." Still, the deregulatory nature of the plan raises complex questions about ethical boundaries and long-term sustainability. Startups building responsible AI platforms -- or working on inclusion, bias mitigation, or human oversight -- may find themselves navigating uncertain terrain in a climate that favors speed over scrutiny. And for multinational companies, the promise of export liberalization may come with diplomatic strings attached, especially as tensions with China and the EU continue to mount over tech sovereignty and cross-border data governance. The Bigger Picture The Trump administration is not alone in recognizing AI as a cornerstone of global power, but its approach stands in sharp contrast to the more cautious, regulation-forward models emerging in Europe and Asia. What emerges from this moment may define how innovation is scaled -- and who controls it -- in the decade ahead. For entrepreneurs, the question is no longer just how to build the next AI breakthrough, but under what rules, in whose interest, and at what cost.

What Is President Trump's AI Action Plan?

The plan mostly calls for federal agencies to roll back regulations deemed cumbersome, facilitate the expansion of America's manufacturing and energy infrastructure, and counter Chinese efforts to match American capabilities. President Donald Trump this week unveiled his administration's AI action plan, a set of policy proposals and government initiatives meant to secure America's leadership in the development of the transformative technology. The action plan, released Wednesday alongside a speech by President Trump at an AI summit hosted by the All-In podcast and Hill & Valley Forum in Washington, rests on three pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building AI infrastructure, and leading in international AI diplomacy and security. Administration officials said the plan, which lays out a broad vision for the federal government's role in guiding the development of AI, is essential for the U.S. to sustain its technological and military edge over international rivals, namely China. "You could argue that the AI race is even more important than the space race, because it's going to determine who reshapes the global economy and who the superpowers of the 21st century are going to be," David Sacks, Trump's AI and crypto czar, told CNBC. The White House clearly believes deregulation will be key to achieving its goal of AI supremacy. "To maintain global leadership in AI, America's private sector must be unencumbered by bureaucratic red tape," the plan reads. The framework calls for industry feedback about existing regulations "that hinder AI innovation and adoption," and orders federal agencies disbursing "AI-related discretionary funding" to withhold money from states with regulations deemed cumbersome. The plan also proposes expediting licensing for the construction of data centers, semiconductor factories, and the energy infrastructure required to power those facilities. That primarily means exempting such projects from certain environmental impact reviews and other regulations limiting air and water pollution. While the plan calls for cutting a lot of red tape, some new restrictions are being rolled out. Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order barring federal agencies from using "woke" AI models, an extension of the administration's war on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in both government and industry. The plan also orders agencies to develop AI evaluation systems, presumably to ensure models meet efficiency, reliability, and security standards. It also proposes requiring federally funded researchers to share datasets used by AI in the course of their research, part of the administration's push to encourage knowledge sharing. AI models consume a massive amount of energy, and booming demand for AI services threatens to strain America's electrical grid. The White House plan insists the U.S. "must prevent the premature decommissioning of critical power generation resources," possibly a nod to President Trump's campaign promise to ramp up the use of coal and natural gas. It also calls for the U.S. to upgrade existing power lines and invest in advanced grid management technology. "If you want to have AI dominance, you have to have energy dominance," Sacks told CNBC on Thursday. The AI boom has already begun to reshape American energy usage. Tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) have turned to nuclear power providers to satisfy booming demand and ensure a steady flow of electricity to their data centers. AI has also been a boon for the natural gas industry, with turbine manufacturers such as GE Vernova (GEV) reporting a surge in sales. China, the only country other than the U.S. to be mentioned in the White House's 28-page AI Action Plan, is at the core of Trump's AI designs. As part of the government's mission to "ensure that frontier AI protects free speech and American values," the Department of Commerce is expected to "publish evaluations of frontier models from the People's Republic of China for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship." The plan also calls for U.S. agencies to "counter Chinese influence in international governance bodies," and work with industry and foreign governments to strengthen Biden-era restrictions on the export of AI-enabling technologies to China and its allies.

White House to unveil plan to push US AI abroad, crack down on restrictive rules - The Economic Times

The White House will unveil a sweeping AI strategy promoting US technology exports and open-source development while restricting federal funding to states with strict AI laws. The plan, backed by President Trump, marks a shift from Biden's cautious approach, aiming to position America as the global AI leader and innovation hub.The White House intends to publish a plan on Wednesday that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a document seen by Reuters shows. According to a summary of the draft plan seen by Reuters, the White House will bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate. It will also promote open source and open weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department. The plan will "focus on empowering American workers through AI-enabled job creation and industry breakthroughs," according to the document. Janet Egan, a fellow at The Center for a New American Security, said the plan, as described by Reuters, represents a market shift in strategy from "a primarily restrictive approach to AI" under Biden to a focus on answering the question "how do you start spreading the infrastructure and the technology that will underpin the globe?" Despite the focus on expansion, the plan does mention the importance of "defending against misuse and preparing for future AI-related risks," according to the summary. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered his administration in January to produce a plan that would make "America the world capital in artificial intelligence" and reduce regulatory barriers to its rapid expansion. That report, which includes input from the National Security Council, is due by Wednesday. Trump is set to mark that deadline with a major speech as part of an event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the All-In podcast. "The Plan will deliver a strong, specific, and actionable federal policy roadmap that goes beyond the details reported here and we look forward to releasing it soon," White House Office of Science and Technology Policy spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said in a statement. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, a marked departure from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on exports of coveted American AI chips to China and other countries that could use or divert the semiconductors to China over national security concerns. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also pulled back Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. Last month, Sacks downplayed the risk that coveted American AI chips could be smuggled to bad actors and expressed concern that regulating U.S. AI too tightly could stifle growth and cede the critical market to China. Under Trump's plan, the White House would also promote AI use at the Pentagon, launch a program to identify federal regulations that impede AI development and streamline the permitting process for data center construction.

White House unveils artificial intelligence policy plan - The Economic Times

The plan developed by US President Donald Trump's administration, calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify.The White House on Wednesday released an artificial intelligence (AI) policy plan highlighting priorities for the US to achieve "global dominance" in the sector. The plan developed by US President Donald Trump's administration, calls for open-source and open-weight AI models to be made freely available by developers for anyone in the world to download and modify. The three core themes are accelerating AI innovation, build American AI infrastructure and lead in international AI diplomacy and security. Sriram Krishnan, White House advisor on AI policy, took to X to share the announcement. "There is a lot of exciting actions in here but one I'm very partial to is the focus on open source and open weights and making sure the U.S. leads in this critical area," his post read. The AI plan calls for the Commerce Department to research Chinese AI models for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship. As previously reported by Reuters, it adds the federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with "burdensome" regulations. (With inputs from Reuters)

President Trump's AI Action Plan Aims to Cement America's Leadership in Technology; Here's How His Administration Plans to Ride the AI Wave

President Trump has revealed his plans to accelerate America's AI innovation, and his administration's action plan includes several important elements. The US is at the forefront of the AI hype right now, since the nation has been leading in every segment, whether it includes hardware technologies, such as those from NVIDIA, or software ones, such as LLMs from OpenAI and others. It's important that America safeguards its technology, and ensures that it remains the dominant entity in the global markets, which is why President Trump has announced his AI "action plan", that focuses on three main frontiers: speeding up innovation, building domestic infrastructure, and ensuring that American AI technology doesn't get replaced by any other solution. The Biden-era "AI Diffusion" rule was seen as a massive attack on America's AI sovereignty, but the Trump administration seems to have far more extensive plans to maintain its lead, apart from restricting access to its technologies to foreign entities. Labelled as "Accelerating AI innovation", the first foundational pillar deals with creating an ecosystem in which private-sector-led innovation can thrive, without being held back by excessive regulations or hindrance from bureaucratic processes. Since the pillar dives into multiple aspects in details, we'll highlight some of the more important with subtle details for the ease of our readers. The first step towards accelerating AI innovation is by removing "Red Tape and Onerous Regulation", and the recommended policy actions include departmental changes, such as those in the OSTP, FCC, and FTC, to ensure that they aid private sector investing into America's AI industry. The federal-level coordination will ensure a more certain environment, fostering room for investments. Another important step includes an environment that caters to having open-sourced AI models, which are critical for startups, academic research, and businesses handling sensitive data. Particularly inspired by the wave of open-source AI models from China, the US believes that having such models will lead to them becoming the global standard and, more importantly, having geostrategic value. The Trump administration will be focused on providing AI startups the necessary compute power for them to create open-source models and lead the AI wave. Finally, another critical aspect of the first pillar is the need to upscale domestic production in all areas, including robotics, autonomous systems, and defense applications, by leveraging AI. President Trump is eager to pivot away from China as the central manufacturing hub. For that, he plans to use programs such as Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), CHIPS R&D, and the Defense Production Act to fund technologies. This could massively benefit the likes of Intel and other American companies, who have grassroots associations with the nation. The second foundation of the AI action plan includes scaling up the construction of AI infrastructure in the nation, including data centers and large-scale AI clusters. The first step towards this objective is to reform environmental permitting and ensure that the American tech stack dominates in data centers being built in the US. The government plans to simplify regulations under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, expedite infrastructure development, and guarantee an ecosystem for developers that isn't hindered by regulations. Energy is a massive issue for the scalability of AI clusters, and the Trump administration does plan to address it by expanding the U.S. electric grid to support the demand coming from the industry. Instead of pouring in new funds, the government intends to prevent premature decommissioning of critical power generation resources, optimize grid management technologies, and create a comprehensive plan to stabilize the current grid, paving the room for future expansion. President Trump is bothered by the presence of foreign technologies, especially those from China in the domestic supply chains, hence to cater towards it, the administration plans to empower semiconductor companies to expand their operations in America by focusing on delivering strong returns on investment, through Department of Commerce's (DOC) CHIPS Program Office, which will analyze ongoing projects, and then decide if they are eligible for further grants. Companies like TSMC, Micron, Intel and many others who have ambitions attached with America will benefit from the AI action plan. This pillar is one of the most important ones of the "AI action plan," and it could determine whether American companies would be allowed to sell their products to foreign entities. The Trump administration plans to meet global demand for AI by exporting the full US technology stack and creating an "AI Export Program" that will gather proposals from companies for export packages. President Trump demands that foreign entities using American chips employ the whole ecosystem, ensuring no foreign intervention in the tech stack. The US knows that Beijing is eager to expand its AI influence in global nations, and instead of imposing restrictions, they plan on countering China by leveraging its position in international diplomatic bodies to create frameworks that allow for an "open environment" in the AI sector, to prevent the adoption of standards that enable authoritarian control. This will allow nations to have multiple options instead of going for China alone, allowing to create a "decentralized" environment, where both American and Chinese tech stacks compete against each other. Finally, to regulate the flow of AI chips and ensure that only "legal users" are utilizing American technologies, the Trump administration plans to integrate location verification features on advanced AI compute, and enhance end-use monitoring in high-risk countries through the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). This will allow the administration to patch out the trade loopholes, allegedly involving nations like Singapore and Malaysia, and that the flow of AI equipment to be directed to its intended users. Well, here's what you call a quick summary of President Trump's "AI action plan." While it is far more diverse than what I have discussed, the plan surely does address domestic needs, international concerns, and the methods through which America will secure its place in the AI industry. While the points mentioned above are directed towards US advancements, they also seem business-friendly for many corporations that previously objected against the Biden "AI Diffusion Rule". The rapidly evolving AI landscape and the advancements China has been making recently make it necessary for America to develop an action plan. The Trump administration has also shown the intent to dominate the industry moving forward, and his plan is a blueprint of what America will evolve moving into the future.

Trump's AI Action Plan Calls for Deregulation, Chatbot Free Speech | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. "America's AI Action Plan" follows Trump's executive order in January that directed federal agencies to dismantle AI regulations put in place by the Biden administration, which focused on oversight and risk mitigation. Trump favors accelerating AI development to "retain global leadership." "As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance," Trump said in the opening page of the AI action plan. The action plan is organized into three pillars: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading in international diplomacy and security. Across all three areas, the administration sought to loosen regulatory constraints, expand AI chip manufacturing capacity and ensure allied nations comply with U.S. tech standards. For AI developers, the administration mandated that their AI systems "be built from the ground up" with "freedom of speech" and adhere to American values instead of shaped by "ideological bias." The Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is directed to revise its AI risk management framework to "eliminate references to misinformation, diversity, equity and inclusion, and climate change." The federal government will only contract with AI developers "who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias." Read more: Nvidia Takes $4.5B Inventory Charge Due to Chip Trade Policy Acknowledging that stringent export controls of AI technology could lead other nations to buy the tech of adversarial countries, the Trump administration said it was willing to export the country's full AI tech stack, including hardware, software, models, applications and tech standards. But countries must join "America's AI Alliance," according to the report. "A failure to meet this demand would be an unforced error, causing these countries to turn to our rivals," the Trump administration warned. The action plan also sought to creatively control exports so they don't fall into the hands of adversaries. One way is to use location verification features on advanced AI chips; another is to step up monitoring of sales. The plan also called for expanding export controls to cover semiconductor manufacturing component sub-systems, not just major systems. The U.S. must prevent adversaries from "free-riding on our innovation and investment," the authors of the report wrote. The AI plan comes as governments worldwide are setting their own AI regulations. The European Union passed the first comprehensive set of AI laws in the EU AI Act, which took effect starting this year. The U.S. does not have federal AI laws -- and the AI plan does not call for them. Moreover, the plan also sought to curb state AI laws. "The federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds." Earlier this month, the Senate rejected a 10-year ban on state AI laws that was originally part of Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill." The president signed the bill into law on July 4, without the ban in place. See also: AI Regulations Bring Deluge of Lobbying Efforts to DC The plan comes at a critical juncture in AI. "Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits," according to the report. "Just like we won the space race, it is imperative that the United States and its allies win this race." The plan calls for an accelerated buildout of AI infrastructure, including streamlined permitting for data centers, chip manufacturing and energy projects; modernization of the U.S. electric grid to support energy-intensive AI workloads; and expanded use of federal lands for development. It also proposes training a skilled workforce in the trades. AI data centers have been on Trump's radar. In January, Trump unveiled 'Stargate,' a $500 billion plan to build AI data centers spearheaded by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX. Stargate reportedly is now dialing back its plans due to disagreements over where to build these plants. Critics of AI data centers point to their increased energy use due to higher cooling needs as a result of AI workloads' intense computations. The AI action plan dismissed these concerns, framing infrastructure as essential to maintaining U.S. AI dominance. The plan will "reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape" to accelerate construction. The administration also outlines a broad vision for AI-enabled scientific progress, calling for investment in "automated cloud-enabled labs," the creation of national datasets and new research programs to advance AI interpretability, robustness and control. To prepare the U.S. workforce, the Department of Labor and the Department of Education and others will work together to promote AI skill development through technical education, apprenticeships and retraining programs. "AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work - not replacing it," the plan stated. The administration also called for government-led evaluations of frontier models for risks such as chemical, biological or cyber misuse and warned that adversaries' AI may have "backdoors" and exhibit "other malicious behavior" to harm the U.S. "This Action Plan sets forth clear policy goals for near-term execution by the federal government," the report said. "The AI race is America's to win." Read more: AI Summit: EU, France to Invest $320 Billion in AI to Rival US, China Why Is Silicon Valley Spending a Fortune on AI Data Centers?

US AI Action Plan To Remove Misinformation, DEI References

MediaNama's Take: The US aims to control AI technology and become a global leader in the AI world, as reflected in the sentiment of America's AI Action Plan. While the US opposes AI models from "adversary nations", claiming them as authoritarian and promoting censorship, Donald Trump follows a similar path by ordering the removal of references to misinformation, climate change, and DEI. This directive contradicts existing responsible AI frameworks worldwide, which promote cultural representation and inclusion in AI systems. It can also increase friction among nations due to the lack of a unified ethical policy. To illustrate an example, if an Indian user asks US-based AI models about abortion, how would the models respond? The United States has tightened reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In this context, would the AI models lead the answers to reflect "American values," or would they align with local culture and laws? How will AI companies ensure moral consistency for all users without bias? While the US-based OpenAI's ChatGPT has the most user base in India, global cooperation and coordination are very important to the existing businesses. The US has a strong, desperate desire to dominate the AI market. It is justified in seeking secure AI systems to defend itself and AI infrastructure against cyber exploitation by enemy nations. However, this need for secure AI systems and the urgency to be a global AI leader must be balanced. AI innovation should not be used as an easy excuse to bypass necessary regulations, including environmental clearances. US President Donald Trump has passed three executive orders and unveiled America's AI Action Plan, a document with policy recommendations to help the nation achieve "global AI dominance." The new policy comes after Trump replaced an executive order passed by President Biden in 2023. This AI Action Plan comes at a moment when multiple American AI companies are partnering with the US government, especially with the defence and military departments. For example, OpenAI is leading the government efforts with initiatives like "OpenAI for Government." Anthropic and Google also have deals with the Department of Defense to support AI systems for national security and intelligence. Similarly, Elon Musk's xAI also partnered to offer generative AI for defense purposes, while Palantir, often through Accenture Federal Services, integrates AI-driven analytics into federal operations. Whereas, Scale AI aids in evaluating and adopting AI across agencies. The AI Action Plan also focuses largely on using AI technologies in US defence and to strengthen AI infrastructure, including datacenters and manufacturing semiconductors. It offers strict export restrictions against non-US allied nations, emphasising on denying access to advanced technology to the adversary nations. At the same time, the policy also aims to ease a lot of regulations within the US that can hinder AI innovation. In the name of encouraging AI innovation, Trump's latest policy aims to encourage AI innovation by directing NIST to deprioritise misinformation in its AI Risk Management Framework. The policy also instructs federal agencies not to procure AI models with "ideological biases." It orders to eliminate the references to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and climate change, arguing that this is necessary to prevent social engineering agendas. "As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation." - Donald Trump in his Statement on AI Action Plan In the USA, the President can issue legally binding executive orders to exercise executive power by directing federal agencies and officers on how to implement laws and carry out their functions and duties. As part of America's AI Action Plan, Donald Trump has passed the following executive orders to achieve the President's vision of "global AI dominance." Trump signed this order to discourage the procurement of AI models which are ideologically biased towards "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI). As AI will be used in learning new skills and to consume information, the executive order says that these can "distort the quality and accuracy of the output." "In the AI context, DEI includes the suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex; manipulation of racial or sexual representation in model outputs; incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism; and discrimination on the basis of race or sex," reads the order. The order also claims that DEI-favoured AIs displace the commitment to truth in favour of preferred outcomes. Trump ordered the easing of federal regulatory burdens to accelerate the construction of AI datacenters. This order includes enabling the administration to use federally owned land for the fast and efficient development of datacenters. Revoking the earlier executive order passed in January 2025, this order directs the Secretary of Commerce to consult with the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to launch initiatives to provide financial support for Qualifying Projects. The Secretaries of Defense, Interior, Commerce, or Energy can designate a company's datacenter "Qualifying Project," if it meets the following requirements: Within 10 days of the order's issuance, each relevant agency must identify to the Council on Environmental Quality any categorical exclusions established or adopted under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The order aims to facilitate the construction of Qualifying Projects through these exclusions. To decrease international dependence on AI technologies developed by their adversaries, Trump passed an executive order to ensure that American AI technologies and governance models are adopted by the US's allies and to secure their technological dominance. Within 90 days of the order's issuance, the Secretary of Commerce is directed to consult the Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to establish and implement the American AI Exports Program to support the development and deployment of 'full-stack AI export packages from the United States.' This refers to complete, end-to-end solutions of AI technologies developed and packaged for export to other countries. Full-stack means that it includes all layers or components required to make the AI technology functional, from the infrastructure (like data centers) and hardware (like chips, servers, and accelerators) to the software and applications. The AI Action Plan also focuses largely on using AI technologies in US defence and to strengthen AI infrastructure, including data centers and manufacturing semiconductors. It offers strict export restrictions against non-US allied nations, emphasising on denying access to advanced technology to the adversary nations. At the same time, the policy also orders to ease a lot of regulations within the US that can hinder AI innovation. In the name of encouraging AI innovation, Trump's latest policy aims to encourage AI innovation by directing NIST to deprioritize misinformation in its AI Risk Management Framework. The policy also instructs federal agencies not to procure AI models with "ideological biases." It orders to eliminate the references to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and climate change, arguing that this is necessary to prevent social engineering agendas. The AI Action Plan calls for AI models, particularly those procured by the US federal government, to preserve and uphold free speech. It also directs agencies to deprioritise and to remove references to "misinformation" from existing risk management frameworks. While acknowledging that it is the right of the developer to release a certain model as closed-source or open-source, it suggests that the deferral government should create a supportive environment for open models. Specific Recommendations: The policy recommends removing bureaucratic red tape for the private sector. To avoid wasting funds, it also prohibits government funding for states with burdensome AI regulations. It argues that undue restrictions hinder innovation. The policy recommends a "try-first" culture for AI across American industries to drive faster adoption, even in critical sectors like healthcare. It cites distrust, a lack of understanding of the technology, a complex regulatory landscape, and unclear governance and risk mitigation standards as reasons for slow AI adoption. It says that AI will enable the new technology across industries, including autonomous drones, self-driving cards and even those technologies which don't have terminology yet. So, it suggested that the government should invest in the emerging AI-led "industrial renaissance." "AI has the potential to transform both the warfighting and back-office operations of the DOD," reads the policy and recommends aggressive AI adoption that is secure and reliable. They cite the lack of an accurate behaviour prediction system of an AI model as the challenge preventing the U.S. from using advanced AI in high-stakes defense and national security. Specific Recommendations: "Because AI systems are particularly well-suited to processing raw intelligence data today, ... it is likely that AI will be used with some of the U.S. government's most sensitive data," states the policy. It also mandated that the datacenters where the AI models are deployed must resist attacks by adversary nation-state actors. Specific Recommendations: Encouraging the AI adaptation in governmental operations, the paper reads, "Fortunately, AI systems themselves can be excellent defensive tools." It says that the US government has the responsibility to ensure that AI systems that the state relies on have to be protected against spurious or malicious inputs. "The most powerful AI systems may pose novel national security risks in the near future in areas such as cyberattacks and the development of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) weapons, as well as novel security vulnerabilities," reads the policy. The policy emphasises the need to understand these risks as they develop to protect national defense and homeland security. The policy recommends establishing systems to screen biological sequence orders before fulfilling them, after approving verified customers, to detect and prevent fraudulent or malicious activity. The policy recommends bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to US soil to reinforce technological leadership, to control the supply chain and disruption from foreign rivals. "America's environmental permitting system and other regulations make it almost impossible to build this infrastructure in the United States with the speed that is required," states the paper. The document states that Trump's revised reforms of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) ease the regulations across the relevant agencies. Specific Recommendations: The AI technology stack includes hardware, models, software, applications, and standards for all American allies and for those countries which are willing to join its alliance. The policy also states that refusing to join the alliance would turn the countries into US rivals. Specific Recommendations: The US says it supports the development of artificial intelligence in like-minded nations that share American values. However, it argues that other nations' burdensome regulations and vague "codes of conduct" promote cultural agendas that conflict with American values, attempting to alter standards for facial recognition and surveillance. Specific Recommendations: "Denying our foreign adversaries access to this resource, then, is a matter of both geostrategic competition and national security," reads the policy. Specific Recommendations: Emphasising on dominating manufacturing and research, the policy states that the US must prevent adversaries from using US innovations for their benefit, as it could undermine the US's national security. It also states that the United States and its allies currently restrict exports of major systems critical to semiconductor manufacturing. But, lacks control in many of the semiconductor's sub-component systems. The policy suggests using the Foreign Direct Product Rule and secondary tariffs to control the exports of technology. This is to ensure that U.S. adversaries do not receive advanced technologies.

Exclusive | Ex-DOGE lawyer launches AI policy council to push US to front of tech...

WASHINGTON -- A former top lawyer at the Department of Government Efficiency launched a new artificial intelligence policy council on Wednesday, coinciding with executive actions by President Trump to deregulating the industry, The Post can reveal. James Burnham, who also held a senior position in the Department of Justice during Trump's first term, is founding the AI Innovation Council to push an "America First" approach to AI and prevent China from winning the race for global tech dominance -- both economically and militarily. "Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to make the United States wealthier and greater than it has ever been," he said. "That's why President Trump made clear in his first week back in office that 'the policy of the United States is to sustain and enhance America's global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.' "I have been as outspoken as anyone about the problems of Big Tech and monopoly power, but it's a major mistake to let legitimate concerns about past abuses block new innovators from propelling our nation into a new golden age." The new council will sketch out regulatory frameworks for AI and help boost US-based companies. Trump, 79, is set to sign several AI-related executive orders Wednesday afternoon -- including an expected action to curb "woke" models. The "AI Action Plan' will be touted by the president's AI czar, Silicon Valley billionaire David Sacks, and will further promote the "export" of American tech abroad and build out data centers in the US. Last week, Sacks joined Trump in announcing more than $100 billion in AI- and energy-related private sector investments at a forum in Pittsburgh. The administration may also prevent states from taking too heavy a hand in regulating the industry, according to a summary seen by Reuters. A proposed moratorium on state and local AI regulation was removed from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by congressional Republicans before Trump signed it July 4. "The goal isn't just to win the innovation race," Burnham said. "It's to help launch America's golden age."

From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas

An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an "AI Action Plan" he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office. The unveiling is co-hosted by the bipartisan Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, a business and technology show hosted by four tech investors and entrepreneurs who include Trump's AI czar, David Sacks. The plan and related executive orders are expected to include some familiar tech lobby pitches. That includes accelerating the sale of AI technology abroad and making it easier to construct the energy-hungry data centre buildings that are needed to form and run AI products, according to a person briefed on Wednesday's event who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. It might also include some of the AI culture war preoccupations of the circle of venture capitalists who endorsed Trump last year. Countering the liberal bias they see in AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google's Gemini has long been a rallying point for the tech industry's loudest Trump backers. Sacks, a former PayPal executive and now Trump's top AI adviser, has been criticizing "woke AI" for more than a year, fueled by Google's February 2024 rollout of an AI image generator that, when asked to show an American Founding Father, created pictures of Black, Asian and Native American men. "The AI's incapable of giving you accurate answers because it's been so programmed with diversity and inclusion," Sacks said at the time. Google quickly fixed its tool, but the "Black George Washington" moment remained a parable for the problem of AI's perceived political bias, taken up by X owner Elon Musk, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, Vice President JD Vance and Republican lawmakers. The administration's latest push against "woke AI" comes a week after the Pentagon announced new US$200 million contracts with four leading AI companies, including Google, to address "critical national security challenges." Also receiving one of the contracts was Musk's xAI, which has been pitched as an alternative to "woke AI" companies. The company has faced its own challenges: Earlier this month, xAI had to scramble to remove posts made by its Grok chatbot that made antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Trump has paired AI's need for huge amounts of electricity with his own push to tap into U.S. energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear. "Everything we aspire to and hope for means the demand and supply of energy in America has to go up," said Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a video posted Tuesday. Many tech giants are already well on their way toward building new data centres in the U.S. and around the world. OpenAI announced this week that it has switched on the first phase of a massive data centre complex in Abilene, Texas, part of an Oracle-backed project known as Stargate that Trump promoted earlier this year. Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and xAI also have major projects underway. The tech industry has pushed for easier permitting rules to get their computing facilities connected to power, but the AI building boom has also contributed to spiking demand for fossil fuel production that will contribute to global warming. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on the world's major tech firms to power data centres completely with renewables by 2030. "A typical AI data centre eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes," Guterres said. "By 2030, data centres could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today." It's long been White House policy under Republican and Democratic administrations to curtail certain technology exports to China and other adversaries on national security grounds. But much of the tech industry argued that Biden went too far at the end of his term in trying to restrict the exports of specialized AI computer chips to more than 100 other countries, including close allies. Part of the Biden administration's motivation was to stop China from acquiring coveted AI chips in third-party locations such as Southeast Asia or the Middle East, but critics said the measures would end up encouraging more countries to turn to China's fast-growing AI industry instead of the U.S. as their technology supplier. It remains to be seen how the Trump administration aims to accelerate the export of U.S.-made AI technologies while countering China's AI ambitions. California chipmakers Nvidia and AMD both announced last week that they won approval from the Trump administration to sell to China some of their advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence. AMD CEO Lisa Su is among the guests planning to attend Trump's event Wednesday. There are sharp debates on how to regulate AI, even among the influential venture capitalists who have been debating it on their favorite medium: the podcast. While some Trump backers, particularly Andreessen, have advocated an "accelerationist" approach that aims to speed up AI advancement with minimal regulation, Sacks has described himself as taking a middle road of techno-realism. "Technology is going to happen. Trying to stop it is like ordering the tides to stop. If we don't do it, somebody else will," Sacks said on the All-In podcast. On Tuesday, 95 groups including labor unions, parent groups, environmental justice organizations and privacy advocates signed a resolution opposing Trump's embrace of industry-driven AI policy and calling for a "People's AI Action Plan" that would "deliver first and foremost for the American people." Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, which helped lead the effort, said the coalition expects Trump's plan to come "straight from Big Tech's mouth." "Every time we say, 'What about our jobs, our air, water, our children?' they're going to say, 'But what about China?'" she said in a call with reporters Tuesday. She said Americans should reject the White House's argument that the industry is overregulated and fight to preserve "baseline protections for the public" as AI technology advances. ___ Matt O'Brien and Ali Swenson, The Associated Press

Trump to outline AI priorities amid tech battle with China

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is set to release a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to relax American rules governing the industry at the center of a technological arms race between economic rivals the U.S. and China. Trump will mark the plan's release with a speech outlining the importance of winning an AI race that is increasingly seen as a defining feature of 21st-century geopolitics, with both China and the U.S. investing heavily in the industry to secure economic and military superiority. According to a summary seen by Reuters, the plan calls for the export of U.S. AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from former President Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. Top administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House National Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett are also expected to join the event titled "Winning the AI Race," organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast, according to an event schedule reviewed by Reuters. Trump may incorporate some of the plan's recommendations into executive orders that will be signed ahead of his speech, according to two sources familiar with the plans. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. The event will be hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, an informal supper club whose deep-pocketed members helped propel Trump's campaign and sketched out a road map for his AI policy long before he was elected. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The new AI plan will seek to bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state laws conflict with its mandate, according to the summary. The Trump administration will also promote open-source and open-weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department, according to the summary. Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, in stark contrast to Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. In May, Trump announced deals with the United Arab Emirates that gave the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the U.S. after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology.

Trump Unveils AI Action Plan with Silicon Valley's Backing

Trump's New AI Strategy Reflects Growing Tech Industry Pressure and Silicon Valley's Expanding Role President Donald Trump has unveiled his long-awaited 'AI Action Plan,' a comprehensive initiative designed to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in the United States. The Trump AI Action Plan outlines a bold strategy to strengthen America's leadership in emerging technologies. Unveiled at an event in Washington co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All-In Podcast, the plan represents a significant shift toward Silicon Valley-backed policies, focusing on reducing regulatory barriers and enhancing US exports of artificial intelligence. This action plan follows Trump's revocation of Biden-era AI regulations on his first day back in office.

Trump's AI plan pushes patriotism in Silicon Valley -- and aims to...

At an artificial intelligence forum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Donald Trump gave his first speech detailing the White House's new AI strategy. The half-day event -- co-hosted by AI Czar David Sacks' "All In" Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum -- found Trump and key officials outlining how they want to deliver more "winning" when it comes to America's AI dominance. It also showed how deeply Republicans have cemented an alliance with the tech community. Alongside Trump and members of his administration were notable private-sector figures like AMD CEO Lisa Su, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang -- all speaking about how aligned they are with the White House's policies. In a fireside chat with Sacks and his podcast co-hosts, Huang, who was recently granted approval to resume AI chip sales in China following a prolonged ban, solely credited Trump for enabling US leadership in artificial intelligence. When asked if the US had an advantage in the AI race, Huang -- either genuine or genuflecting -- said, "America's unique advantage that no country possibly has is President Trump." Huang also revealed another important fact during his address: He owns approximately 50 to 60 identical copies of his signature leather jacket. Meanwhile, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum joined Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to highlight the administration's support for AI infrastructure, urging business leaders to ask for help securing energy resources for data centers and other projects. "Please contact us," Burgum said. "We help people build projects." The sentiment that Silicon Valley is aligned with America's interests was echoed by Trump, who said he sees "a new spirit of patriotism and loyalty in Silicon Valley ... we need companies to be all in for America." He also promised a nation "where innovators are rewarded" with streamlined regulations and significant investments in AI infrastructure. The White House's 28-page "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan," unveiled at the conference, outlines three pillars to secure US dominance in the industry: accelerating innovation by removing regulatory barriers, building infrastructure through expedited permits for data centers and semiconductor facilities, and promoting American AI standards globally while ensuring models are free from bias. Trump administration officials told me that, while they're focused on helping big players like Nvidia win, they want all Americans to benefit. Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, told me the AI plan will be broadly applied to all areas of government -- and the economy. She said she has used AI to refine her department's loan underwriting program and is allowing small businesses to use their SBA loan to invest in AI software. Loeffler has been meeting with "small business owners using artificial intelligence to level the playing field -- building new business on the backs of AI," she said. As to whether tech's alliance with MAGA will continue, private sector attendees told me they believe the answer is yes. The ongoing threats of a potential "communist" -- as the president referred to Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in the speech -- in charge of New York City has been enough to keep some innovators aligned with Trump. And Loeffler, who previously ran software company Bakkt, said she believes alliance is permanent since the two groups are ideologically aligned. "Supporting free enterprise is something conservatives have always done and that lifts everyone up," Loeffler told me. "It shouldn't be a political issue, but it was because the Biden administration locked down innovation ... the left has gone further towards socialism, which locks down innovation."

White House to unveil plan to push US AI abroad, crackdown on US AI rules, document shows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Wednesday intends to publish a plan that calls for the export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let American AI flourish, a document seen by Reuters shows. According to a summary of the draft plan seen by Reuters, the White House will bar federal AI funding from going to states with tough AI rules and ask the Federal Communications Commission to assess whether state AI laws conflict with its mandate. It will also promote open source and open weight AI development and "export American AI technologies through full-stack deployment packages" and data center initiatives led by the Commerce Department. The plan will "focus on empowering American workers through AI-enabled job creation and industry breakthroughs," according to the document. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The document shows President Donald Trump is laser-focused on removing barriers to AI expansion, a marked departure from former President Joe Biden, who feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI to supercharge its military and harm allies. Biden, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on exports of coveted American AI chips to China and other countries that could divert the semiconductors to China over national security concerns. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also pulled back Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity that some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. Last month, White House AI czar David Sacks downplayed the risk that coveted American AI chips could be smuggled to bad actors and expressed concern that regulating U.S. AI too tightly could stifle growth and cede the critical market to China. Under Trump's plan, the White House would also promote AI use at the Pentagon, launch a program to identify federal regulations that impede AI development, and streamline the permitting process for data center construction. (Writing by Alexandra Alper, Editing by Franklin Paul)

Trump administration to supercharge AI sales to allies, loosen environmental rules

(Reuters) -The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint on Wednesday that aims to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology. President Donald Trump marked the plan's release with a speech where he laid out the stakes of the technological arms race with China, calling it a fight that will define the 21st century. "America is the country that started the AI race. And as President of the United States, I'm here today to declare that America is going to win it," Trump said. The plan, which includes some 90 recommendations, calls for the export of U.S. AI software and hardware abroad as well as a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let it flourish, a marked departure from predecessor Joe Biden's "high fence" approach that limited global access to coveted AI chips. "We also have to have a single federal standard, not 50 different states regulating this industry in the future," Trump said. Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters on Wednesday the departments of Commerce and State will partner with the industry to "deliver secure full-stack AI export packages, including hardware models, software applications and standards to America's friends and allies around the world." An expansion in exports of a full suite of AI products could benefit AI chip juggernauts Nvidia and AMD as well as AI model giants Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Facebook parent Meta. Trump signed three executive orders on Wednesday that incorporated elements of the action plan, including the loosening of environmental rules, establishing rules for chip exports and seeking to limit political bias in AI technology. Biden feared U.S. adversaries like China could harness AI chips produced by companies like Nvidia and AMD to supercharge its military and harm allies. The former president, who left office in January, imposed a raft of restrictions on U.S. exports of AI chips to China and other countries that it feared could divert the semiconductors to America's top global rival. Trump rescinded Biden's executive order aimed at promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation. He also rescinded Biden's so-called AI diffusion rule, which capped the amount of American AI computing capacity some countries were allowed to obtain via U.S. AI chip imports. "Our edge (in AI) is not something that we can sort of rest on our laurels," Vice President JD Vance said in a separate appearance at the event, which was organized by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and his co-hosts on the "All-In" podcast. "If we're regulating ourselves to death and allowing the Chinese to catch up to us, that's not something ... we should blame the Chinese for..., that is something we should blame our own leaders for, for having stupid policies that allow other countries to catch up with America," Vance said. The AI plan, according to a senior administration official, does not address national security concerns around Nvidia's H20 chip, which powers AI models and was designed to walk right up to the line of prior restrictions on Chinese AI chip access. Trump blocked the export of the H20 to China in April but allowed the company to resume sales earlier this month, sparking rare public criticism from fellow Republicans. FAST-TRACKING DATA CENTERS The plan also calls for fast-tracking the construction of data centers by loosening environmental regulations and utilizing federal land to expedite development of the projects, including any power supplies. The administration will seek to establish new exclusions for data centers under the National Environmental Policy Act and streamline permits under the Clean Water Act. Trump directed his administration in January to develop the plan. Trump is expected to take additional actions in the upcoming weeks that will help Big Tech secure the vast amounts of electricity it needs to power the energy-guzzling data centers needed for the rapid expansion of AI, Reuters previously reported. U.S. power demand is hitting record highs this year after nearly two decades of stagnation as AI and cloud computing data centers balloon in number and size across the country. The export expansion plans take a page from deals unveiled in May that gave the United Arab Emirates expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the United States after previously facing restrictions over Washington's concerns that China could access the technology. (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Alexandra Alper; Additional reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Chris Sanders, Jamie Freed, Mark Porter and Diane Craft)