President Trump signed a trio of executive orders related to artificial intelligence (AI) on Wednesday, focusing on boosting data center construction and the adoption of American technology while targeting “woke” AI.
The three executive orders seek to fast-track permitting for data centers, promote the export of the American technology stack abroad and bar “woke” AI systems from federal contracting.
“Under this administration, our innovation will be unmatched, and our capabilities will be unrivaled,” Trump said at an AI summit hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the “All-In” podcast, where he signed the orders Wednesday evening.
“With the help of many of the people in this room, America’s ultimate triumph will be absolutely unstoppable,” he continued. “We will be unstoppable as a nation. Again, we’re way ahead, and we want to stay that way.”
The orders accompany the Trump administration’s “AI Action Plan” released earlier Wednesday, which lays out a three-pronged approach to “winning the race” on AI.
In the framework, the administration called to cut federal and state AI regulations in an effort to boost innovation, pushed to expedite the build-out of AI infrastructure and sought to encourage the adoption of American technology abroad.
Each of Trump’s executive orders seeks to target at least some of the policy goals detailed in his AI action plan.
The data center order calls on the Council on Environmental Quality to establish new categorical exclusions for certain data center projects that “normally do not have a significant effect on the human environment.” It also seeks to identify projects that qualify for expedited permitting review.
“My administration will use every tool at our disposal to ensure that the United States can build and retain the largest, most powerful and most advanced AI infrastructure anywhere on the planet,” Trump said Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, his AI export order calls for the creation of an American AI Exports Program that will develop full-stack AI export packages, featuring U.S. chips, AI models and applications.
Trump contrasted his approach with that of former President Biden, who released the AI diffusion rule at the tail end of his presidency, placing caps on chip sales to most countries around the world. The rule faced pushback from the semiconductor industry and was repealed by the Trump administration in May.
The third order targeting “woke” AI seeks to limit agencies from signing contracts for AI models unless they are considered “truth seeking” and maintain “ideological neutrality,” which it defines as those that “do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI.”
