Report from Bloomberg
In Brief – President Trump unveiled his AI Action Plan that doubles down on his Administration’s pro-industry stance and portrays the technology as critical to winning the economic and security competition with China. In events hosted by digital economy leaders that backed his campaign, he backed AI policies that eschew regulation and promote investment, innovation, and incorporating AI into government operations. In the wake of a failure to legislate a moratorium on state AI regulations in the recent budget reconciliation bill, the plan blocks federal AI promotion funds going to states that enact restrictive AI laws. Along with the high-level plan, the President is expected to sign three AI-related executive orders. One targets so-called “woke” AI models allegedly constructed to give ideologically biased responses. The second is aimed at facilitating the construction of data centers. The third directs US Government institutions designed to promote international development to encourage exports of American AI technology. The plan further rallies Republicans in Washington around a pro-AI agenda that includes ramping up energy production to power data centers and avoiding regulations that could constrain AI models’ development.
Context – President Biden’s major AI order was issued in October 2023, nearly a year after the release of chatbot phenom Chat-GPT that led to a dramatic increase in public and government discussions around AI risks and regulation. It aimed to use federal regulatory and contracting authority to promote AI safety and transparency practices as the EU was legislating its comprehensive AI Act regulatory regime. Trump revoked Biden’s order on his first day back in office. The trend in major markets is not toward AI Act-style regulation. There is meaningful debate in Europe over slowing down and streamlining regulation. But AI Act backers are pressing the European Commission to hold the line and the release of the EU’s Code of Conduct on General Purpose AI points in that direction. In the US, decidedly wary progressive advocacy groups released their People’s AI Action Plan intended to pull Democrats away from President Trump’s pro-industry policies.