On Wednesday, the Trump administration laid out a plan aimed at enabling businesses to quickly develop and deploy artificial intelligence technologies.
The initiative shows how Silicon Valley technology executives who supported Trump during the election are shaping federal policies that will affect businesses as they compete globally to dominate AI races.
“Artificial intelligence is an innovative technology with the potential to transform the global economy and change the balance of power in the world,” said David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Advisor, in a statement. “The US must win the AI race to maintain its major economic and military capabilities.”
Sacks is a co-founder and partner of Craft Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm.
Tech companies have developed strong ties with the Trump administration by donating money, appearing at high-profile events such as inauguration ceremonies, and introducing US investments.
Shortly after Trump took office, Openai, Oracle and Softbank announced they plan to invest a total of $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next four years. Elon Musk, the billionaire who runs Tesla and SpaceX, was tasked with cutting government spending by donating more than $280 million to the 2024 election. Faced with criticism for building an iPhone from Trump overseas, Apple said it would invest $500 billion in the US. Nvidia, a chipmaker in Santa Clara, California, said it will spend up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure over the next four years.
In a speech he issued before signing the executive order, Trump declared that America would win the AI race, calling for a single federal standard regulating AI rather than leaving it to the state. He advocated the ability to train systems in books and articles without fear of AI companies violating copyright laws or requiring them to do business with content providers.
“They can't move because America must once again be a country where innovators get rewarded with green light and are strangled with red tape,” Trump said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that AI was risky and “censored” the content while tech companies criticised them for building factories and employing workers from other countries such as China and India.
“To win the AI race, we require a new spirit of patriotism and national loyalty in Silicon Valley and beyond,” he said.
The AI plan highlights how Trump is taking a different approach to AI regulation than his predecessor, former President Biden. He is not only focused on AI benefits, but also has potential risks such as promoting disinformation and promoting employment. Trump revoked Biden's executive order in January and placed guardrails around AI development.
“This is a more grown-up approach to AI, and I personally believe it is the right way to do it. I believe this is in contrast to the more fear-based approach we saw in previous administrations.”
Tech companies began investing in artificial intelligence long before Openai's ChatGPT, a chatbot that can generate text and images, grew in popularity. However, the emergence of more rivals has sparked fierce competition among companies looking to release new AI tools that can restructure industries from healthcare to education.
The rapid pace of technology development has raised concerns about whether the government is doing enough to regulate high-tech companies and protect its citizens from the potential dangers of AI. Some fact checkers have noticed that AI chatbots can vent false information. Parents worry that the chatbots their children use will pose a threat to their mental health.
However, regulations have struggled to accommodate the speed of technology movement. The government also needs to balance concerns that too many rules could hinder how quickly a product with new AI can be released. As Google and Meta's leading tech giants face Openai, the maker of ChatGpt, they head straight out with rivals from other countries, including Chinese AI company Deepseek.
The plan outlines how it will remove “bureaucratic red tape” and “nasty federal regulations” and make it difficult for businesses to quickly build and develop AI technology. It also mentions the data center and infrastructure renewal permits required to power AI systems.
Data centers make house computing equipment such as servers that are used to process the information needed to train and maintain AI systems. However, the volume of water and electricity data centers consumes concerns of some environmentalists.
Prior to the release of the plan, more than 80 civil rights, labor and environmental groups have signed the People's AI Action Plan.
“Our freedom and equality, the happiness of our workers and our families, the air we breathe, and even the water we drink, we can't write AI and economic rules for large-scale technology and large-scale oil lobbyists.
The White House plan is also trying to address one of the biggest concerns about the rapid deployment of AI: the possibility that technology could replace humans in some jobs. For example, building infrastructure to power AI systems will create well-paid jobs for Americans, the plan says.
“AI will complement American lives and not replace them, but improve American lives,” the plan said.
He also said that AI systems need to be bias-free. The plan recommends that the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminate references to “misinformation, diversity, equity and climate change” in the AI risk management framework.
The plan also shows that the federal government withholds federal funds from states that have “burdened AI regulations.” This is a proposal criticised by some child safety groups. California lawmakers are working on laws aimed at making AI chatbots safer, but it is unclear how burdens are defined by the plan.
“It will depend on how much teeth are translated into specific policies about how much they are, and how much they are being burdened,” Villasenor said.
The plan underscored the importance of national security. The US said it would need to export a “full AI technology stack” that includes hardware and software in its allies and partners, but AI should refuse to reject its foreign enemies.
Some tech executives on Wednesday immediately praised the AI plan.
Box CEO Aaron Levy said the plan was “very strong.”
“It is a clear mission to accelerate the development and use of AI by winning AI races and removing obstacles and supporting recruitment.
Fred Humphries, Microsoft's corporate vice president of US government affairs, also praised the plan.
“President Trump's plan will accelerate infrastructure preparation so that AI can be built and used here, and support students and workers with the skills needed to win in an AI-powered global economy,” he said in X.
