Donald Trump’s administration’s new artificial intelligence action plan includes a strategy it claims will help the US position itself in the rapidly expanding field of artificial intelligence as it fights China for supremacy.
The 25-page “America’s AI Action Plan” was released on Wednesday by the White House.
The administration claims that 90 different policy proposals will increase AI tools for allies around the world. Additionally, it will encourage the construction of additional US data centers. Although it is unclear which federal laws are in question, they will be eliminated.
The plan, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will “ensure that the world continues to run on American technology and that America sets the technological gold standard globally.”
Around 5 p.m. in New York (21:00 GMT), the president is scheduled to issue a series of executive orders outlining key components of the strategy.
White House AI czar David Sacks stated to reporters on Wednesday that “we think we’re in a race… and that we want the United States to win that race.”
The White House claims that the strategy will “contain Chinese influence in international governance bodies” and give US exports of AI technology more control.
The administration did not, however, provide any information regarding how that will be done.
A framework to examine Chinese models created to assess “alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship” will also be included in the Trump administration’s plan.
In the spotlight, free speech is important
According to the plan, free speech will also be supported in models that will enable organizations to conduct business with the federal government and be “objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, a senior White House official claimed that AI models that take diversity and inclusion were the main target. This, according to experts, indicates that the government’s perceived liberal bias is at risk rather than a general bias.
In a statement released to Al Jazeera, Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy &, Technology, said, “The government should not be acting as a Ministry of AI Truth or insisting that AI models adhere to their preferred interpretation of reality.”
The strategy is “extremely unbalanced, focusing too much on promoting the technology while largely overlooking the ways in which it might potentially harm people.”
Conservatives have long criticized AI chatbots for having a liberal bias, similar to what they said about the old media’s critical coverage of the administration. However, it comes as right-wing tycoon Elon Musk’s AI platform, GrokAI, is being sued by users as having a right-wing lean. Musk’s X AI is a part of a $200 million joint venture with the Pentagon that includes OpenAI and other AI firms.
constructing data centers
As the industry’s expansion is swiftly accelerating, the new plan’s main objective will be to establish new data centers for AI technology. That will include streamlining permits for building new data centers and energy-producing facilities for these data centers, according to the administration.
The plan avoids environmental concerns, which have been a significant criticism of the AI industry. According to the plan, AI “challenges America to build significantly more energy generation than we have today.”
Increased power consumption and, in turn, greenhouse gas emissions have been linked to AI data centers. According to Google’s 2024 sustainability report, power greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 48% since 2019 and will only increase.
“This resulted primarily from higher energy consumption and supply chain emissions in data centers. Reduced emissions may be challenging as we add more AI to our products because of the higher energy demands posed by the higher level of AI compute and the emissions associated with the anticipated increases in the investment in technical infrastructure, according to the report.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to reverse its scientific finding that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health as a result of streamlining permits. According to two unnamed sources, the Reuters news agency reported that that change would remove the legal framework on which climate regulations are based.
The reversal would make it easier for the EPA to overturn laws restricting greenhouse gas emissions from energy-producing facilities, including those used to power AI data centers.
The administration will grant more federal lands for AI development by enforcing environmental review exceptions for data center construction.
According to the plan, “AI will complement Americans’ lives rather than replace it.”
However, it occurs as local businesses are forced to close jobs as a result of AI. Recruit Holdings, the parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor, terminated 1300 jobs earlier this month, directly attributing to AI.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated in June that AI accounts for 30% to 50% of the company’s workload. The tech company fired 1, 000 workers in February.
According to analysts, the AI sector investor outlook appears favorable.
Trump acknowledges that the US-China AI arms race is a “wintertime moment” in the AI revolution. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives described it as “a significant step forward.”
Source: Aljazeera
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