The White House has released its long-awaited artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. It’s called “Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” and it gives the AI industry a green light to move as rapidly as it wants in the name of global competition.

The main goals are to accelerate the US AI industry’s growth and beat China in the AI development and deployment race. A secondary aim is to outline how the Trump administration’s goals differ from the Biden regime’s more cautious approach.

Several key policies outlined in the plan include exporting American AI, building data centers, enabling AI innovation and adoption, and free speech.

The four principles

This plan was first outlined and so ordered in Trump’s AI executive order signed in January, which stated the policy should be about his administration’s 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.

Accelerate AI innovation

This pillar aims to remove red tape and onerous regulation while protecting free speech and accelerating it for use in manufacturing, healthcare, the government, and elsewhere, with American workers being trained to use it. To accomplish these goals, the policy outlines that the US government will not allow AI-related federal funding to be directed to states with burdensome AI regulations, and the Trump administration will put out a request for information on federal regulations it views as impeding AI innovation.

It will establish regulatory sandboxes or AI Centers of excellence around the country where researchers, startups and established enterprises can rapidly deploy and test AI tools while committing to open sharing of data and results. And several US agencies (such as the Department of Labor and Department of Defense) will prioritize AI skill development as a core objective of relevant education and workforce funding stream. The plan calls on agencies to prioritize government investment in emerging technologies like drones and self-driving cars.

Build American AI infrastructure

This will be done through much greater energy generation. Implementation will mean more data centers and a more streamlined permitting process for building and operating them and building AI manufacturing facilities, while also guaranteeing safety.

Since the escalating demand posed by AI is putting pressure on America’s electrical grid, the US must explore innovative ways to harness existing capacity and create new capacity, using extant back-up systems, and optimizing existing grid resources. It will establish an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center lead by the Department of Homeland Security (in collaboration with others) that will promote the sharing of AI-security threat information and intelligence across US critical infrastructure sectors.

Lead in International AI diplomacy and security

This will be achieved by exporting AI to allies and trusted partners to help meet the global demand for AI and reduce the chance a US ally would need to turn use a foreign adversary’s technology. As a policy action, the action plan orders several agencies to evaluate where chips are being sourced and create a rigorous chip-export control regime. Export controls must also be strengthened to address gaps in semiconductor manufacturing export controls, the action plan stated.

The plan mentioned free speech at the federal level, calling for a change in procurement standards for AI deemed too liberal or “woke” and mandating the update of AI risk management frameworks to delete mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, misinformation and climate change.

And it addresses AI-generated media like “malicious deepfakes” and fake evidence that could be used in court, noting that agencies could turn to NIST’s Guardians of Forensic Evidence Deepfake Evaluation Program for guidance in overcoming these new challenges.

“The AI infrastructure buildout will create high-paying jobs for American workers. And the breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, and many other fields that AI will make possible will increase the standard of living for all Americans. AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work – not replacing it,” the plan’s introduction states.