The administration is concentrating on “winning the race” to advance AI.
What you must understand
– The Trump administration today unveiled “America’s AI Action Plan,” detailing over 90 policy objectives aimed at enhancing U.S. AI innovation.
– The policy initiatives aim to minimize bureaucracy for AI infrastructure development, remove mentions of DEI and “ideological bias,” and regulate exports.
– The AI Action Plan represents a significant shift from Biden-era regulations, which sought to limit AI misinformation and consider climate effects of infrastructure development.
AI advancement in the U.S. is on the verge of transformation. The Trump administration today presented its AI Action Plan, a 23-page document outlining more than 90 policy measures related to AI set to be executed within the coming year. The document, subtitled “winning the race,” eliminates regulations and policies deemed by the administration as hindering AI innovation in the nation.
Michael Kratsios, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, informed NPR that the Trump administration will collaborate with the AI sector and others to refine the specifics. Kratsios likened the Biden-era regulations to European Commission technology rules, stating, “we cannot afford to adopt Europe’s innovation-stifling regulatory model.”
U.S. President Trump asserted in the plan that “it is a national security imperative for the United States to attain and sustain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological supremacy.” This involves leveraging “the full power of American innovation,” according to the President, which is why the AI Action Plan intends to significantly reduce regulations surrounding AI research and development.
How the Trump administration intends to transform national AI development
The strategy encompasses three pillars: innovation, infrastructure, and international diplomacy and security.
The first pillar consists of policy suggestions designed to bolster AI development, such as endorsing AI implementation in the federal government and promoting open-source model creation. It also seeks to amend the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework to “remove references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change.”
The government intends to assess LLMs to “ensure that their systems remain unbiased and free from top-down ideological influences.” The criteria for this evaluation are not yet clear, but the Trump administration will not award government contracts to firms failing to meet this ambiguous standard.
Moreover, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education will focus on advancing AI skills to “empower American workers in the age of AI.”
The second pillar emphasizes bolstering AI infrastructure in the U.S., streamlining permits for AI data centers, and alleviating or eliminating climate-related restrictions. Specifically, the Trump administration aims to simplify or diminish regulations enforced by the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, alongside other environmental standards mandated by federal law.
An aspect of the infrastructure pillar includes enhancing and stabilizing the U.S. electrical grid, fortifying the nation’s cybersecurity defenses, and establishing AI incident response plans at the federal tier.
Finally, the international diplomacy and security pillar will augment U.S. exports of AI and technology to its allies while tightening export controls on “countries of concern.” Funding from the Development Finance Corporation and Export-Import Bank will be utilized to create AI export packages for “countries willing to align with America’s AI alliance.”
For nations considered a concern by the Trump administration, strict enforcement of export controls for technology vital for semiconductor manufacturing will be pursued. The administration will simultaneously elevate export control requirements beyond key systems necessary for fabrication, extending to include component sub-systems. From there, the federal government plans to oversee and enforce these regulations on foreign exports.
“This would entail monitoring emerging technology advancements in AI computing to ensure comprehensive coverage of potential countries or regions where chips may be diverted,” the plan clarifies. “This enhanced monitoring could then be leveraged to expand and enhance end-use monitoring in nations where there is a heightened risk of diversion of advanced, U.S.-origin AI compute.”
What this signifies for AI development in the U.S.
Under the existing Biden-era regulations, AI development must adhere to standards aimed at mitigating the risk of misinformation and controlling the climate effects of AI infrastructure expansion. The proposed AI Action Plan from the Trump administration seeks to overturn many of these policies. It believes that alleviating red tape will foster AI innovation in the U.S., as stated by Kratsios.
At present, this plan comprises policy objectives that the federal government wishes to enact with “immediate execution.” However, they will not be implemented right away. The initial phase of changes may emerge through executive orders issued by President Trump imminently, though others might require more time.
It is also conceivable that certain elements of the AI Action Plan could encounter legal obstacles, particularly those addressing DEI and ideological bias. The measures could be challenged as content-based discrimination, as noted by UC San Francisco School of Law professor Rory Little speaking to Yahoo Finance. Nonetheless, experts, including Little, believe AI firms vying for government contracts may comply with the Trump administration’s requests even if they are illegal.
For the time being, we will have
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