Donald Trump is launching his long-awaited AI Action Plan Wednesday at a Silicon Valley-hosted event in Washington D.C. It’s his first major AI address since returning to office in January.
The plan replaces the Biden AI executive order, which Trump repealed shortly after inauguration. Biden’s order focused on AI safety, security reporting, and curbing bias. Trump argues those rules are too heavy and stifle innovation.
The Trump administration has pushed to speed up AI tech. It backed OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank’s Stargate data center project and loosened restrictions on Nvidia AI chip exports. 
Trump’s AI czar, David Sacks, is also going after “woke” AI politics. He claims OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google inject left-leaning bias and censor conservatives.
More than 90 groups, including environmental and labor nonprofits, fired back with a public letter called the People’s AI Action Plan. They say Trump’s plan favors corporate profits over public good.
“We can’t let Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists write the rules for AI and our economy at the expense of our freedom and equality, workers and families’ well-being,” the coalition said in a statement to TechCrunch.
The AI Action Plan leans on three pillars: infrastructure, innovation, and global influence, per Time. Trump plans to overhaul permitting rules to fast-track energy-hungry AI data centers. These centers raise energy and water use fears that could cause shortages by decade’s end.
He also wants to modernize the US grid and boost new energy sources to power AI growth.
On innovation, Trump plans to revive the debate on blocking state AI laws after a recent federal proposal failed. The goal: fewer barriers for AI companies, potentially blocking strict safety rules.
Globally, Trump aims to cement US AI tech as the standard amid rising Chinese rivals like DeepSeek, Qwen, and Moonshot AI.
The administration will sign several executive orders Wednesday, per The Washington Post. Some clear the way for faster data center builds. Others push wider export of American AI tech.
One order specifically targets “woke” AI, according to the Wall Street Journal. AI firms with federal contracts — including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI — must ensure models use “neutral and unbiased language.”
This move critiques Silicon Valley’s perceived left-lean bias. It echoes GOP pressure on social media companies, which recently led Meta to revamp content moderation.
A key question: who decides if AI is neutral or biased? Trump claims to back free speech, but a Florida judge recently ruled AI chatbots aren’t First Amendment protected.
OpenAI and others now try balancing viewpoints to avoid extremist content while satisfying critics.
Elon Musk’s xAI, meant as an “anti-woke” ChatGPT rival with the Grok bot, stumbled with antisemitic rants and controversial takes, leading to public apologies.
Silicon Valley giants shared input on Trump’s plan after 10,000 public comments. OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon want a federal guarantee that training AI on copyrighted material counts as fair use. This would help them amid lawsuits from music, film, news, and book industries claiming illegal training on their work.
Meta wants open AI models protected too. Anthropic warns this could leak technologies to bad actors like China.
Groups such as the Future of Life Institute urged more federal research funding, as both the Trump administration and private funder DOGE slash university budgets.
Trump’s plan likely won’t bring Biden-level safety reporting mandates. But polls show most Americans want AI companies regulated for safety.
State lawmakers pushing mandatory AI safety rules could face opposition from the Trump White House and GOP lawmakers aligned with the new AI Action Plan.
The full plan drops at the “Winning the AI Race” summit Wednesday, hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All In podcast, co-hosted by David Sacks.
TechCrunch will be monitoring reactions live.
