On July 23, the White House released its anticipated AI Action Plan, which lays out the Administration’s AI priorities, as well as three executive orders intended primarily to accelerate AI development, deployment and adoption. The plan is centered around three strategic pillars – (1) Innovation, (2) Infrastructure, and (3) International Diplomacy and Security.
The release of the plan and the executive orders begin to form a clearer picture of how the current administration is viewing key AI debates:
o Globalism vs. Restrictiveness: In the lead up to the plan, there was much internal debate over the plan’s priorities, particularly as it relates to the third pillar and whether the U.S. should prioritize exporting its technology to ensure U.S remains the global standard or restrict U.S. technology exports because of national security concerns. The accelerationist wing of the administration, which supports exporting U.S. technology abroad, prevailed.
o Copyright: Although copyright protections were not mentioned in the AI plan, President Trump did address the topic during his remarks at a summit on AI. The president sided with the tech industry over copyright holders, rejecting proposals that require AI companies to compensate copyright holders for training data, declaring such requirements "not doable" and impractical for maintaining U.S. competitiveness. He emphasized that China does not impose such restrictions on its AI development, warning that copyright licensing requirements would handicap American innovation in the global AI race and that stringent copyright enforcement was unrealistic. The President's remarks were the most explicit warning to content creators that this administration favors a federal approach that supports fair use applications in AI training, inevitably intensifying disputes with the creative community and with publishers seeking compensation for their intellectual property.
o State AI Regulations: The plan seeks to tie federal AI-related funding for states to their AI regulatory environment, with the notion that states with “burdensome AI regulations” could lose out on some federal funding and instructing the FCC to evaluate state AI regulations. With Congress rejecting a moratorium on state AI regulation, this is the Administration’s attempt to continue pressuring states to have a light-touch on AI regulations.
o “Woke” AI: One of the executive orders issued by President Trump along with the AI Action Plan would require federal agencies to only procure AI models that are “truth-seeking” and ideologically neutral. The executive order is the latest example of the Trump administration using its power to end or influence DEI and other “woke” policies from private organizations and could have a significant impact on how companies seeking to do business with the federal government police their AI models and on how government agencies themselves use the technology.