Trump administration unveils artificial intelligence strategy to maintain U.S. dominance

(Patria) - The administration of President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled an aggressive, low-regulation strategy that encourages a race among big tech companies to stay ahead of China in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and solidify U.S. dominance in the rapidly growing area, AFP reported.

The 25-page "American AI Action Plan" outlines three goals: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and maintaining international leadership in AI.

Overall, the administration views AI progress as key to maintaining economic and military supremacy. Environmental consequences are overlooked in the plan document.

"We believe we are in an AI race... and we want the United States to win that race," said David Sacks, the White House AI lead, in a phone call with reporters.

In a collection of more than ninety government proposals, the plan calls for comprehensive deregulation, with the administration promising to "remove bureaucracy and burdensome regulation" that could hinder the development of artificial intelligence in the private sector.

Much of that work has already been done through a Trump executive order rescinding policies on artificial intelligence from the administration of Joseph Biden.
The plan asks the Federal Communications Commission to find ways to legally prevent U.S. states from implementing their own AI regulations and threatens to cut off federal funding for those that do.

The American Civil Liberties Union warned that this would thwart "initiatives to uphold civil rights and protect communities from biased AI systems in areas such as employment, education, healthcare, and policing."

Trump's action plan calls for AI systems to be "free from ideological bias" and designed to pursue objective truth, rather than what it calls "social engineering agendas." This criterion would apply to AI companies seeking to do business with the U.S. government.

A senior White House official said the main goal is AI models that pay attention to diversity and inclusion issues in the programming of their model outputs, reflecting the Trump administration's "anti-woke" agenda.

A major focus in the plan includes building AI infrastructure, including streamlined permitting for data centers and power plants that would disregard environmental concerns to build them as quickly as possible.

AI "challenges America to build substantially more energy production than we have today," the plan states.

Responding to fears that AI will replace people and create mass job losses across sectors, the administration's plan instead says that "AI will enhance 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 compliance with the talking points and censorship of the Chinese Communist Party."

The strategy calls for the government to advocate for American technology in winning overseas markets.

The plans will help "ensure that America sets the global technology gold standard and that the world continues to run on American technology," said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.