The Trump admin has a new AI plan
Image: AFP
On Wednesday, President Trump unveiled a sweeping new AI Action Plan aimed at ensuring America’s “global dominance” in artificial intelligence.
The new policies will replace the Biden admin’s AI strategy, which placed a large focus on AI safety/security and limiting discriminatory bias in major models.
Ready, action
The new White House plan prioritizes AI innovation and adoption by seeking to remove barriers that could slow down its adoption. America’s AI policy will be to do “whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence,” Trump said.
It lays out three main areas of focus:
- Infrastructure: Trump’s plan aims to promote the construction of more AI data centers and factories in America by speeding up the permitting process and loosening some environmental regulations. It also aims to modernize America’s electrical grid and add new sources of energy for those data centers, which suck up immense amounts of power.
- Innovation: The AI Action Plan has a strategy to disincentivize states from strictly regulating AI, with federal agencies ordered not to provide funding to states with such laws. Officials say it’s meant to promote innovation among US-based AI firms.
- Global influence: US companies are encouraged to develop and use open AI models that are free to download and created with American values in mind. This move is aimed at countering the recent global rise of open AI models from China, including DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen.
There’s also a new AI bias check. The plan—and a related executive order signed by Trump—aims to block the US government from contracting with tech companies unless they “ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”
However, critics of the move, including the left-leaning Center for Democracy and Technology, call it “an impossible, vague standard that the Administration will be able to weaponize for its own ideological ends."
Looking ahead…The 90+ AI policy actions in Trump’s new plan will be enacted over the coming year. Officials say some of the finer details are still in development, and will rely on input from the AI industry and others.
📊 Flash poll: In general, how do you feel about Trump’s new AI Action Plan?
See a 360° view of what pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that Trump’s AI plan shows the extent to which Silicon Valley is now able to steer the White House agenda, and note that the unintended consequences of Trump’s aggressive AI initiatives could take years to play out
- Others contend that while Trump’s AI plan made for glitzy press moments, they obscured the fact that the administration is currently decimating the very antitrust policies that enabled America to become the world leader in AI in the first place.
- “The White House’s AI Plan Is a Gift to Silicon Valley” –Parmy Olson, Bloomberg
- “Trump’s AI Action Plan is a distraction” –Asad Ramzanali, MIT Technology Review
- “The gulf is not the place to build the world’s AI infrastructure” –Christopher S. Chivvis and Sam Winter-Levy, WaPo
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that Trump’s team deserves credit for trying to keep America at the forefront of global AI innovation, but their restrictionist immigration policies won’t help the US dominate AI by depriving the country of necessary foreign workers.
- Others contend that President Trump has identified a real problem: artificial intelligence systems are exhibiting an undeniable political slant, since Silicon Valley engineers lean left and they’ve built their AI systems to reflect progressive values—with results that have been embarrassing for everyone.
- “Liberation Day for American AI” –WSJ Editorial Board
- “Trump’s war on ‘woke AI’ is just Step 1: now we must fight the ‘monster’ within” –Judd Rosenblatt, NY Post
- “Nvidia, Microsoft and other tech leaders need a lot more than Trump’s ‘action plan’ to win the AI race” –Stephen S. Roach, MarketWatch
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