Donald Trump signed a trio of executive orders on Wednesday, including targeting what the White House called the “wake” artificial intelligence model, which he vowed to turn the United States into a “AI export powerhouse.”
Speaking at the AI Summit in Washington, Trump signed an order on stage at the Melon Auditorium, saying that he “wakened the insanity of Marxism with an AI model.”
“Only once we're getting rid of what we woke up. Is that okay?” Trump said he'd voiced a loud applause from an audience of AI industry leaders. He later argued that his predecessor, Joe Biden, “established toxic diversity, equity and inclusive ideology as a guide to American AI development.”
“So you knew right away that was the end of your development,” he said, eliciting a laugh.
This new order requires artificial intelligence companies receiving federal funds to maintain a politically neutral AI model that does not have “ideological doctrines such as DEIs.” This is putting increasing pressure on industries seeking partnerships with government agencies. It's part of the Trump administration A broader anti-dritique campaign targeting federal agencies, academic institutions and the military.
The directive stresses that the federal government should “reluctantly restrict the functioning of AI models in the private market,” but argues that public procurement has a “obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy on the ideological agenda.” However, the indicators of the AI model politically biased are controversial and open to interpretation, which could allow the administration to use orders to target businesses at its discretion.
Other orders were intended to promote the federal government to allow data center infrastructure and to promote exports of American AI models. The enforcement action coincides with the release of a broader 24-page “AI Action Plan” that seeks to solidify US “global control” in artificial intelligence and expand the use of AI in the federal government.
“Winning this race will be a test of its non-existent capabilities since the dawn of the space age,” declared Trump, “we need American tech companies to need America all-in. We want America to be the first.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the White House announced a long-standing “action plan,” titled “Win the Race,” which was announced shortly after Trump took office and abolished the Biden administration order for AI. It outlines the White House vision of governing American artificial intelligence and vows to speed up the development of rapidly growing technologies by removing “red tapes and nasty regulations.”
In his remarks, Trump also proposed a more nominal change. “I can't stand it,” he said. He mentioned the use of the word “artificial.” “I don't even like the name, do you know? I don't like artificial things. So we should straighten it, we need to change the name. I actually mean that.”
“It's not artificial. It's a genius,” he added.
The second order signed by Trump on Wednesday called for deregulation of AI development, increased construction of data centers, and removal of environmental protections that could hinder construction.
A data center that houses servers of AI models requires enormous amounts of water and energy to function, generating greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental groups have warned of a harmful increase in air and noise pollution as high-tech companies build more facilities, but many local communities are opposed to the construction.
In addition to relaxing legal permits and highlighting the need for more energy infrastructure, both measures lobbying, Trump's Order is assembled AI races as a contest of geopolitical control. China has invested billions in manufacturing AI chips and data centers and has become a competitor in the industry, while Chinese companies such as Deepseek have released AI models that rival Silicon Valley's production.
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While Trump's plans are trying to address fears about China as an AI superpower, the Trump administration's move to “wake” reflects years of conservative complaints against high-tech companies that Republicans accused of liberal bias and restraining right-wing ideology. As generative AI has become more prominent in recent years, its criticism has shifted from concerns about internet search results or anti-information policies to anger towards AI chatbots and image generators.
One of the biggest critics of liberal prejudices perceived in AI is Elon Musk. He vowed to turn Xai Company and its Grok chatbot into “Anti-Woke.” Musk and Donald Trump are still trapped in feud after the masses dropped out last month, but given Musk's emphasis on controlling AI's political production, he can benefit from Trump's orders.
Musk has consistently criticised AI models, including himself, because he did not generate what he sees as a sufficiently conservative view. He claimed that Xa remaked Grok to eliminate free prejudice, and chatbots occasionally posted white supremacist and anti-Semitic content. In May, Glock confirmed the white supremacist plot that “white genocide” was taking place in South Africa, saying that doing so was “instructed by my creators.” Earlier this month, Grok posted pro-Nazi ideology and rape fantasies, identifying him as “mechahitler” until the company was forced to intervene.
Despite Grok's promotion of Nazism, Xai was one of several AI companies that the Department of Defense awarded contracts up to $200 million this month to develop tools for the government. Openai, humanity, and Google were all other recipients with their own AI models.
Conservatives have picked out cases such as Google's Gemini Image Generator and produced racially diverse portrayals of historical figures such as German World War II soldiers as evidence of liberal prejudice. Meanwhile, AI experts have long been warning about the issues of racial and gender bias in the creation of artificial intelligence models trained on social media posts, news articles, and other content such as media that may contain stereotypical or discriminatory material built into these tools. Researchers found that despite advances in AI, these biases persist. Models often replicate existing social biases into production.
The conflict over AI bias has also led to industry disruption. In 2020, a co-lead of Google's “Ethical AI” team said Timnit Gebble was fired after showing concerns that bias was embedded in the company's AI model and widespread diversity efforts in the company. Google said she had resigned.
