- The White House AI Action plan is designed to solidify the country's position as an AI leader
- Proposed actions include streamlining permitting for data center development, bringing chip manufacturing stateside and backing open models
- Though many in the tech space backed the plan, others found it to be either a mixed bag or outright bad
The White House on Wednesday laid out a 90-point plan to secure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence (AI), following up on AI-focused Executive Orders issued earlier this year.
Among other things, the roadmap calls for removing regulations that hinder AI innovation and adoption; streamlining data center permitting; reinforcing the grid to meet data center demand; and backing open source and open weight AI models. It also advocates for AI skills development for the workforce, studying AI's impacts on the labor market, establishing AI Centers of Excellence around the country and accelerating the government's adoption of AI tools.
There are also more political elements, including directives to export American AI tech via full-stack packages to allies; bring semiconductor manufacturing stateside; collect intelligence on how foreign AI models may threaten national security; and take an array of steps to head off China’s AI efforts.
On models specifically, the plan calls for the federal government to only contract with companies that are “free from ideological bias.” If you’re curious what that means, it’s worth noting that the same section instructs NIST to remove references to diversity, equity, inclusion and climate change from its AI Risk Management Framework. Make of that what you will (though given what’s happened with Grok, it could get ugly).
“This plan galvanizes Federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally, ensuring that American workers and families thrive in the AI era,” said White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “We are moving with urgency to make this vision a reality.”
Reactions
Trump’s plan was hailed as a win by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr as well as the Data Center Coalition, Wireless Infrastructure Association and Lumen Technologies. But not everyone was all in.
Environmental groups like the Climate Justice Alliance were less than thrilled and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (which advocates for removal of regulatory burdens on businesses) called the plan a “mixed bag.”
While CEI backed efforts to slash state-level AI regulation and keep AI free of “woke” bias, Wayne Crews, Fellow in Regulatory Studies, warned that the plan could move too far in the opposite direction. Specifically, the plan and related executive orders “risk inappropriately centralizing certain elements of AI oversight, deployment, infrastructure and funding within Washington.”
“Leading with un-woke AI is great, but it won't necessarily result in a libertarian leap forward in light-touch governance when so much AI is federally funded, and when carrots and sticks rather than competitive free enterprise and disciplines set the basic agenda,” Crews said.
AvidThink Founder and Principal Roy Chua told Fierce that many elements of the plan were expected - everything from the deregulatory approach, full stack focus and emphasis on exporting AI have all been clearly telegraphed in recent months. He added that while some are worried there's not enough focus on AI safety, other elements - including the focus on open models and the proposed creation of model evaluation ecosystems - are positives.
"I'm hoping that the recommendations in there around the encouragement of AI adoption and education, mitigation of AI-related job displacement via investment in retraining come to fruition in easing the transition to a more AI-driven society, " he concluded.
UPDATE 7/23/2025 6:50 pm ET: This story has been updated to include comments from Roy Chua.