Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
The White House's AI action plan released on Wednesday focuses on beating China and accelerating the tech's advancement in the U.S.
Why it matters: "Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan" at its core gives industry the green light to move as rapidly as it wants, all in the name of global competition.
The big picture: Industry has been eager for the long-awaited plan to get a sense of what direction the Trump administration wants to go on AI, and just how it aims to differ from the Biden-era focus on safety.
- President Trump is set to appear at an event in Washington later on Wednesday with top tech leaders to discuss the document.
- The plan lays out the administration's aspirations for AI with specific goals that officials believe can be completed in Trump's second term.
Driving the news: As Axios first reported last week, the plan ordered in Trump's January AI executive order is largely about messaging a hands-off, pro-growth approach to AI.
- The report focuses on three main "pillars" of accelerating AI innovation, building American AI infrastructure and leading in international AI diplomacy and security.
What's inside: The report highlights four key policies: exporting American AI, promoting rapid buildout of data centers, enabling AI innovation and adoption, and free speech in frontier models.
The action plan states that "the Federal government should not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed toward states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds, but should also not interfere with states' rights to pass prudent laws that are not unduly restrictive to innovation."
- It's a nod to what Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz tried to do via reconciliation, but faced too much backlash.
- The administration will put out a request for information on federal regulations it views as impeding AI innovation.
- Per the report, any state laws that the Trump administration deems in conflict with the federal standards set out in the Communications Act could be used as the basis to deny funding.
- OMB will work with all federal agencies with AI-related discretionary funding to ensure "they consider a state's AI regulatory climate" when making funding decisions.
AI and free speech: At the federal level, the plan calls to change procurement standards for AI deemed too liberal or "woke" and to update the AI risk management framework to delete mentions of DEI, misinformation and climate change.
Encouraging open-source AI: The plan aims to help startups and academics get access to compute via private-public partnerships at NAIRR, Commerce, OSTP and the National Science Foundation.
The plan also urges various departments to adopt programs that will train people to work in AI jobs and prioritize government investment in emerging technologies like drones and self-driving cars.
Export controls: Per the report, "the United States must meet global demand for AI by exporting its full AI technology stack— hardware, models, software, applications, and standards—to all countries willing to join America's AI alliance."
What we're watching: At an event later on Wednesday, Trump is slated to sign executive orders to give agency directives for the AI action plan.
- The EOs are expected to focus on "woke" AI, infrastructure and exports.
Read the plan.
