The Trump administration has released “America’s AI Action Plan,” a comprehensive 25-page policy document containing over 90 federal actions designed to strengthen U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence development. The plan outlines three strategic pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building AI infrastructure, and leading in international AI diplomacy and security.
The plan represents a stark departure from the Biden administration’s approach, explicitly reversing Executive Order 14110, which focused on “safe, secure, and trustworthy development” of AI systems.
The administration’s most controversial element involves systematic deregulation across multiple sectors. The plan directs federal agencies to identify and eliminate regulations that “hinder AI development and deployment,” while also threatening to withhold federal AI funding from states with “burdensome AI regulations.”
The Federal Trade Commission has been specifically instructed to review all investigations commenced under the Biden administration to ensure they don’t “unduly burden AI innovation”. Additionally, the plan calls for updating federal procurement guidelines to ensure government contracts only go to AI developers who guarantee their systems are “objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”
Recognizing AI’s massive energy requirements, the plan prioritizes streamlining environmental permitting for data centers and semiconductor manufacturing facilities. It establishes new categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act specifically for data center construction and calls for making federal lands available for AI infrastructure development.
The administration emphasizes that “America’s path to AI dominance depends on changing” the nation’s stagnant energy capacity, proposing to “stabilize the grid of today” while embracing new energy generation sources including nuclear fusion.
To counteract Trump’s plan, a nationwide alliance of more than 90 civil-society groups has unveiled the People’s AI Action Plan, a policy blueprint that seeks to redirect U.S. artificial-intelligence strategy toward public safety, worker protections, and environmental stewardship.
“The White House AI Action Plan is written by Big Tech interests invested in advancing AI that’s used on us, not by us.
“The Trump Administration’s latest AI directive is a billion-dollar giveaway to Big Tech that puts corporate profits ahead of public safety. AI is already harming workers, consumers, and communities—and instead of enforcing guardrails, this administration is gutting oversight. After the AI moratorium was defeated 99-1 under massive public pressure, the message from the public was clear: no more handouts for Trump’s tech bro buddies. We need rules and accountability—not a Silicon Valley free-for-all,” said J.B. Branch, Big Tech Accountability Advocate at Public Citizen.”
Crafted by labor unions, climate advocates, civil-rights organizations, and consumer watchdogs, the framework outlines legislative and regulatory steps to ensure that AI development “delivers first and foremost for the American people” rather than for Big Tech shareholders.
Core Principles
- Public well-being and shared prosperity: The plan demands rigorous safety testing of AI systems before deployment in workplaces, schools, and hospitals.
- Economic fairness: It proposes antitrust action to break up AI monopolies and calls for data-portability rules that prevent lock-in to dominant platforms.
- Environmental sustainability: Coalition members insist on environmental-impact assessments for data centers, citing rising energy and water usage tied to AI infrastructure.
- Civil-rights protections: The proposal requires bias audits, transparency reports, and a private right of action for individuals harmed by algorithmic discrimination.
The Trump administration has already announced major private sector investments, including a $90 billion commitment for AI infrastructure in Pennsylvania and the Stargate project involving collaboration between SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI.
