Trump admin unveils AI strategy to maintain US dominance

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on June 10, 2025, en route to the White House. Brendan Smialowski, AFP/File

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled an aggressive, low-regulation strategy boosting big tech's race to stay ahead of China on artificial intelligence and cement the United States' dominance in the fast-expanding field.

The 25-page "America's AI Action Plan" outlines three aims: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading internationally on AI.

Overall, the administration frames AI advancement as critical to maintaining economic and military supremacy. Environmental consequences in the planning document are sidelined.

"We believe we're in an AI race… and we want the United States to win that race," said the White House's AI point person David Sacks in a call with reporters.

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President Donald Trump was expected to announce the plan in a speech later Wednesday.

According to US media reports, Trump was also to announce a series of executive orders to give key components of the plan additional legal weight.

In its collection of more than 90 government proposals, the plan calls for sweeping deregulation, with the administration promising to "remove red tape and onerous regulation" that could hinder private sector AI development.

Much of that work has already been carried out through a Trump executive order repealing the AI policies of the Biden administration.

The Trump action plan also calls for AI systems to be "free from ideological bias" and designed to pursue objective truth rather than what the administration calls "social engineering agendas."

This criterion would apply to AI companies wanting to do business with the US government.

A senior White House official said the main target was AI models that gave attention to diversity and inclusion concerns in programming their model output -- reflecting the Trump administration's anti-"woke" agenda.

A major focus in the plan involves building AI infrastructure, including streamlined permitting for data centers and energy facilities that would overlook environmental concerns in the name of building AI capability as swiftly as possible.

AI "challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today," the plan said.

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The administration, which largely rejects international science showing a growing climate crisis, proposes creating new environmental review exemptions for data center construction and expanding access to federal lands for AI infrastructure development.

Addressing fears that AI will replace humans and create mass job losses across entire sectors, the administration's plan says instead that "AI will improve the lives of Americans by complementing their work -- not replacing it."

The strategy calls for efforts to "counter Chinese influence in international governance bodies" and strengthen export controls on advanced AI computing technology.

The plan also proposes evaluating Chinese AI models "for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship."

At the same time, the strategy calls on the government to champion US technology in conquering overseas markets.

These plans will help "ensure America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and that the world continues to run on American technology," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

© Agence France-Presse