America’s AI Action Plan: “Build, Baby, Build”

The White House’s just-released AI Action Plan prioritizes speed, power, and US AI supremacy, over pretty much everything else. This will likely be good news for some, but not for others.

This morning the White House unveiled its new AI Action Plan for the US. There’s a lot here to digest, but I did want to provide my first take on the plan – and what it might mean moving forward.

This is an action plan that I suspect will be received very differently by different communities. And to be fair, it’s probably not as bad as some will be making out, or as great as others will argue.

From the perspective of AI tech companies for instance (and the ecosystem of industries emerging around them), I can imagine that most will likely embrace the plan as it advocates for removing regulatory, political and — let’s be honest — social constraints to going as fast as they can, while lining themselves up for massive investments and financial wins.

Universities are also likely to be scrambling to align themselves with potential new AI funding opportunities and an opportunity to signal alignment with the current administration. The plan very clearly indicates the Federal government is intending to invest heavily in research and development into AI systems, infrastructure, and its use in discovery — all areas that promote American AI supremacy.

Similarly, I suspect that higher education institutions across the country will be scrambling to take advantage of the plan’s very clear support for pro-AI education. Expect to see efforts that rebrand programs that are AI agnostic or even AI-critical to programs that claim to fully embrace move-fast innovation and equip graduates to be a part of building an American AI empire.2

And then there are the institutions, organizations, and individuals, who have been advocating for considered, responsible, principled, and socially beneficial AI development. These, I suspect, will not welcome the plan, and be pushing hard against its prioritization of US power, influence and supremacy over pretty much anything else.3

From these somewhat speculative vignettes you might surmise — correctly — that the Action Plan seeks to remove barriers to the US moving as fast as possible on becoming the AI superpower; getting rid of regulations and awkward questions around unintended consequences and social responsibility that might slow things down, while ensuring that America rules the world in, with, and through, AI.

As the plan’s introduction puts it, “Simply put, we need to ‘Build, Baby, Build.’”

The Action Plan

The plan itself is built around three pillars: Accelerating AI innovation; building American AI infrastructure; and leading in international AI diplomacy and security (which in this context means that US controlling everything). Together, these outline a strategy for ensuring that the US holds the global reigns of power in what is pitched as a transformative age of world-changing AI …

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More on artificial intelligence at ASU.