EP 574: The White House AI Action Plan: What was announced and what it means

Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. White House AI Action Plan Overview
2. Key Policy Shifts From Biden to Trump
3. Federal AI Regulation Deregulation Details
4. Federal Contracts: Woke AI and Bias Policies
5. Data Center Expansion and Climate Impacts
6. U.S. vs. China AI Race Strategy
7. Legal Challenges: State Rights and Federal Control
8. Open Source AI vs. Bias Restrictions
9. Big Tech Climate Pledges vs. Coal Expansion
10. Private Investment Role in U.S. AI Leadership

Keywords:

White House AI Action Plan, AI action plan, Trump administration AI policy, Biden administration AI regulation, US AI dominance, global AI race, AI regulatory reform, deregulation of AI, open source AI, AI infrastructure, data centers, AI energy consumption, coal power AI, natural gas AI, nuclear power AI, federal AI contracts, unbiased AI models, woke AI, ideological bias in AI, US-China AI competition, AGI, ASI, big tech AI investment, Stargate project, Pennsylvania AI Hub, private AI investment, AI jobs risk, small businesses AI, climate friendly tech, environmental exemptions for AI, Clean Air Act, Water Act, Commerce Department AI evaluation, AI misinformation, AI safety risks, Senate AI legislation, federal-state AI funding, state AI regulation, legal challenges, First Amendment AI issues, civil rights groups AI opposition, People's AI Action Plan, Department of Defense AI contracts, EPA greenhouse gas rules, tech companies climate pledges, Microsoft carbon negative, Google net zero, open source versus bias restriction, free speech versus ideological control, Republican states AI regulation, AI procurement, federal agency staffing, US electrical grid and AI, global technological dominance, AI tournament, international AI export restrictions, Chinese AI technology, DeepSeek, Kimi, Quinn Alibaba

Podcast Transcript

Jordan Wilson [00:00:50]:
The White House just released a 23 page AI action plan that's packed with fascinating contradictions. A They're promoting free speech while restricting AI models with certain viewpoints they don't like. The plan lays out that it supports small businesses and average workers, while experts warn that millions of jobs are at risk with AI acceleration. On paper, the plan champions open source innovation while limiting federal contracts to anything that they deem that is woke AI. And the government will demand that climate friendly big tech companies get on board with their plan to generate power from coal. Today we're breaking down every important fact, confusing contradiction and much must watch storylines in America's big bet to beat China at AI because understanding these key tensions is key to predicting exactly what happens next. All right, I'm excited for today's episode as we dive into the White House AI Action Plan. What was announced and what it means.

Jordan Wilson [00:01:57]:
Welcome and what's going on y'. All. My name is Jordan Wilson and welcome to Everyday AI. This is your daily live stream, podcast and free daily newsletter helping everyday business leaders like you and me not just learn what's going on in the world of AI, but how we can leverage all this to be the smartest person in AI in our companies, growing them to do everything that no one else can. All right, so it starts here with the live stream and podcast. But if you want to really take it to the next level, make sure you go to our website@your everydayai.com where you there. We're going to break down not just the highlights from today's episode, but also keep you in touch and ahead with everything that you need to know to get ahead with AI. All right, so speaking of that, make sure to check the newsletter for the AI news, but here's what we're going to talk about today on the show.

Jordan Wilson [00:02:44]:
I'm going to give you a high level overview of what the White House just announced in its AI Action Plan. I'm going to unveil what it means for the US Economy and jobs now going to give you the four juiciest AI storylines that you should watch. All right, let's dive into it. So hours ago the Trump White House announced its 90 plus policy actions to win the AI race. It's called America's AI Action Plan, published just hours ago on July 23, 2025. And it is a complete reversal of the Biden administration's safety focused approach. Its goal, unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. So obviously we have, you know, listeners from all over the world.

Jordan Wilson [00:03:37]:
So this one, this episode is taking more of a U. S viewpoint. I'm obviously here in Chicago, Illinois and our biggest audience is in the US So if, you know, maybe if you're from the Europe or you know, some other country, Australia, New Zealand, maybe this episode isn't as relevant you think on the surface. But I would argue it actually is because right now the US leads in AI but China is a very close second. I'll even say it's probably 1A and 1B when it comes to AI innovation. So what we are seeing here in this brand new document is actually setting the tone for the AI arms race. And let's be honest, that's what it is. Whoever wins in AI to technically wins at AGI or ASI and they become the global superpower, right? You can have hundreds of years of either a lead in a certain element when it comes to global economy, society, education, healthc, care reform, etc that could be erased just by either losing or winning when it comes to AI.

Jordan Wilson [00:04:48]:
And I don't think that's a far stretch. I do honestly think, and most economists will agree that is how it goes. I mean look at the most powerful companies in the world right now. The one thing that they all have in common is they've invested billions of dollars in generative AI. They become AI first companies. I've talked about this on the show many times. There's never been a time like this in the history of the United States where the top five or six, depending on what day you look at it, when the top five or six companies are in the same category, when they're competing for the same thing, whoever wins in AI will be the global superpower. That's why this document is actually extremely important.

Jordan Wilson [00:05:34]:
So here's what this plan actually does. So it is essentially removing a lot of federal regulations that currently can slow down in some instances AI development and deployment. It threatens to cut funding for states with what they call the White House. Anytime I say they, if this is the White House, right, The Trump administration. So what they call burden some AI regulations. It restricts federal contracts to AI companies with models that they deem unbiased. Only the administration gets to say what they say is woke. So they say they won't give federal contracts to any AI that they deem woke, whatever that is.

Jordan Wilson [00:06:11]:
I guess it just depends on how the administration is feeling that day. Also, this fast tracks permits for data centers that need massive electricity, infrastructure buildout. And also this is leveraging priorly or, sorry, previously committed private money, specifically $590 billion in the Stargate project, the Pennsylvania AI Hub. So it's essentially leveraging this private tech investment already announced by major AI companies. So, you know, we're not seeing, you know, technically any new legislation in this AI action plan. We're not seeing any new federal or state dollars, but seeing the, the White House kind of say that they're going to use what power they have available to them to kind of dictate where this money may or may not go. So here's how they're actually going to make this happen, right? Because like I said, this is an AI action plan, right? These are thoughts on paper, but they, the White House can enforce this in certain ways. So right now, the administration doesn't need congressional approval because they're using some exec existing executive orders.

Jordan Wilson [00:07:27]:
Right now, Federal agencies have six to 12 months to rewrite procurement and funding rules. And enforcement is going to be happening through federal contracts, grants and existing regulatory power. And previously, the previous Biden administration was very, when it came to AI, very safety first. And a lot of Biden's AI policies were revoked on day one through an executive order by President Trump. There's three main pillars in this AI action plan. So it's the innovation pillar, which removes regulation and targets what the White House called woke AI in government systems. There's the infrastructure pillar that requires all federal AI permits completed by the end of 2025. And there's international pillar.

Jordan Wilson [00:08:18]:
So kind of three eyes that exports or that kind of dictates how they will export American AI globally while also blocking Chinese technology influence. And each pillar builds on the others to create a more comprehensive competitive advantage. So, yeah, kind of the innovation pillar, the infrastructure pillar, and then the international competition pillar, and kind of these three things are all related. It's actually a pretty quick read. It's 23 pages long. It didn't take me too long to read it. And we'll make sure to link that in today's newsletter if you do want to read the entire action plan. So like I said, there were some kind of some pre existing executive orders on AI done by the previous administration.

Jordan Wilson [00:09:06]:
So I do want to talk about those first. And then we can kind of break down how this new action plan reverses kind of what we previously had. So Biden's actions focus on preventing bias, misinformation, and safety risks across AI system. Trump called via this AI action plan, they called Biden's approach an onerous regulatory regime that handicaps innovation. Their new strategy prioritizes, they say it prioritizes speed and global competitiveness over precautionary safety measures. And the plan states that AI is too important to smother in bureaucracy. This thing's not without controversy, obviously. So one of the biggest pieces of controversy right now is that this AI action plan is saying only they're going to be able to choose who is going to be able to receive any of this government funding.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:05]:
And it's only going to come from models that they say is free from ideological bias. Right. So essentially, if the Trump White House decides, any company, if they say, oh, that's woke, whatever it could be, they could essentially just say, all right, well, you're not going to get this government contract. Right. You're not going to get this, you know, $200 million contract that you were rewarded for. The Department of Defense, as an example, because, you know, we say that your AI is woke. This is actually in the AI action plan. Yeah.

Jordan Wilson [00:10:38]:
Not making this up. Also, technical standards are being stripped of diversity and climate change references. Yeah. So a lot of controversy already. The Commerce Department will evaluate Chinese AI models for Communist Party propaganda, alignment, and also constitutional. Lawyers are licking their chops right now for some potential legal challenges, which we'll break down later in the episode. So let's talk a little bit about the infrastructure pillar. So right now, each new data center consumes electricity equivalent to 100,000 homes annually.

Jordan Wilson [00:11:15]:
And new environmental exemptions specifically have been created for data center construction projects. Right. They really want to be able to expedite these new data centers because it's not saying it's not possible. Right. But the public and private sector are really going to have to get behind some of these big data center projects in order to get them up and running in time to compete with China. And like I said, make no mistake, that's what this is about. This whole, you know, winning. It's called winning the race.

Jordan Wilson [00:11:47]:
America's action plan, it's winning the race, I mean, against all other nations, but mainly against China, because China Although the most powerful models in the world are coming from Silicon Valley, coming from OpenAI, coming from Google, coming from Anthropic, China is catching up. China has a lot of serious open source models. Quinn from Alibaba, you have the new Kimi models, you have Deep Seek, right? Maybe these are models you haven't heard of too much aside from Deep Seek, But China does have some very impressive open source and proprietary models, but a lot of open source. Right? And that's really going to push China's development as a whole, because when they put those kind of weights out there for the world to see, that is going to help everyone else get technically ahead of the U.S. i don't think China on the surface cares as much about them individually beating us head to head. I think China's approach here is open sourcing everyone, or, sorry, everything, as much as they can, as fast as they can, so the global community can overtake the US and then at that point, I do think whether China comes up with a new way to monetize, whether they start locking down or stop updating some of their more powerful open source models. But I do think ultimately, does China want to win one on one versus the U.S. i don't think that's their, their strategy per se.

Jordan Wilson [00:13:23]:
Excuse me, still got the little cough in my throat here. Excuse me. So I do think China is taking a little bit of a different approach. So this thing already, even though it's only been out for a day, it already has a lot of strong opposition, specifically from civil rights groups. So you already have 90 plus organizations that have released a counter to America's AI action plan called the People's AI Action Plan that opposes the White House approach. So they're calling it in the People's AI Action Plan, a massive handout to big tech that prioritizes corporate profits. Also, civil liberty groups have warned that the plan exceeds presidential authority without congressional approval. And consumer groups criticize the environmental impact of rapid data center expansion.

Jordan Wilson [00:14:21]:
All right, let's take a very quick break for a word from our sponsors.

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Jordan Wilson [00:14:58]:
All right, let's keep this thing going. And I do think it is worth reading, kind of the opening paragraph here from the AI Action Plan. So here's how it starts. Today, a new frontier of scientific discovery lies before us, defined by transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence. Breakthroughs in these fields have the potential to reshape the global balance of power, spark entirely new industries, and revolutionize the way we live and work. As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation. And that is signed by President Trump.

Jordan Wilson [00:15:52]:
So let's talk a little bit about some of these legal challenges. So first, First Amendment lawyers are licking their chops right now, kind of with this ideological bias requirement for contractors to not have what the administration can, on their own deem to be woke. AI that's going to face a lot of legal challenges. State governments right now, even Republican led, right? This is. We're going to probably see a lot of Republican infighting on this because this has gone against some of the traditional Republican ideologies on a lot of things. But right now, you have state governments preparing to resist federal funding threats over local AI regulations. And this is from a direct quote from the AI Action Plan. It says that they will consider a state's AI regulatory climate when making funding decisions.

Jordan Wilson [00:16:49]:
Right. So what that is saying, if you read between the lines, the federal government doesn't want individual states to have any, any laws or regulations slowing AI down. And in here, they're essentially saying, hey, states, if you are regulating AI, there's a good chance you're not going to get any federal funding in the future. So that will probably get challenged. Also, this plan, at its core, contradicts the recent 99. One Senate vote that rejected similar federal preemption language. So what that means in Donald Trump's budget for the year, which was nicknamed the Big Beautiful Bill, there was a couple AI provisions floated out there. Ultimately, they were shot down.

Jordan Wilson [00:17:41]:
99. 1. And what this provision did is exactly what is now in this AI Action Plan, right? Is it said that if states regulated AI, that they wouldn't get federal funding. So it was shot down from a legislative perspective. So the White House, the administration, will have to go through other means to kind of get this point across. And I do assume it will be challenged throughout various courts. Also, Congressional Democrats are questioning executive authority to withhold funding from states. And I do think that we're going to have some outspoken Republican governors join in that chorus, especially once the administration makes their first example.

Jordan Wilson [00:18:26]:
You know, the first state. I'm specifically looking at the first Republican state, whether it's at the governor's office with an executive order, state legislature, but I'm looking at the first Republican state that does have any sort of legislation regarding AI that slows down federal progress. That's when this thing will get a little interesting and also a little muddy as well. Let's talk about the environment. This one's big because the plan calls for expanding coal, natural gas and nuclear power generation, the first two, which have not necessarily been popular with the big tech companies that are building AI. And right now environmental permitting has streamlined under major Clean Air and Water acts. And critics are warning that aging electrical grid cannot handle rapid data center expansion. Right.

Jordan Wilson [00:19:26]:
Like we're doing all this math and seeing all these huge gigawatt, you know, AI data centers being built. And you know, all the smart environmental scientists are like doing the math and they're like, yeah, this isn't really possible right now. Like we cannot produce, you know, here in the US we can literally not produce enough energy to meet all of these demands. So what's going to happen is either we're going to have be over investing in capex capital expenditures around AI data centers and or if AI gets extremely more efficient in the coming years, you know, are we going to be over investing? So I get it. From the White House perspective, you want to be able to lay the groundwork for investing as much as possible. Right. If AI is the new gold, you need to have the tools to dig the gold. Right? So this makes sense from a certain standpoint, but also from a climate standpoint, probably not the best play.

Jordan Wilson [00:20:26]:
But what other way can you do it? Also, there are the EPA greenhouse gas rules that simultaneously are being reversed to ease power plant construction. So let's talk about some practical obstacles, like is this feasible because all of these federal agencies that are supposed to be carrying out a lot of this work, like I said, this AI action plan is not any new law being passed. A lot of these kind of 90 different policies are being passed off to various different federal agencies to kind of carry out on their own accord. However, guess what's happened over the last couple of months in the US if you don't follow, you know, there is these Doge cuts from Elon Musk, the Department of Government efficiency slashed. A lot of these government bodies that are now going to be the ones that are tasked with carrying out a lot of this work. So, excuse me. The plan assigns complex technical tasks to these now very understaffed government departments. And it is in a massive timeline to require all of these federal AI permits to be completed by the end of 2025.

Jordan Wilson [00:21:49]:
I don't think that's feasible. I don't think that's feasible. Right. We have, what, five and a half months, something like that. Not even, you know, four and a half or roughly five months left of the year. Right. Like, I'm counting on my fingers. Yeah, five months.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:09]:
That's not going to happen, let's be honest. Go look at all the work that has to be done by the end of 2025 and then look at a short staff government and the fact that government runs so slowly to begin with. I don't think so. Also, another serious obstacle with the implementation of this plan is its ultimate success depends on private companies. Right. Annually delivering on that big picture $590 billion investment. So through the Stargate project, you know, companies like Oracle, OpenAI, Microsoft, and then the Pennsylvania AI project that was just announced a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.

Jordan Wilson [00:22:48]:
So much of this ultimately is predicated on the dangling of the money carrot. So if. What happens? If, for whatever reasons, one of these private companies hits pause on their investment, does this whole AI action plan unravel? That's something I think. You know, if the federal government is not itself putting money behind this, I think that's where it makes it a little trickier. So let's wrap this up before I get to some of the juicy storylines. Here's the bottom line. I think this is a massive contradictory gamble. So the administration is betting on this $590 billion in already committed private money plus massive deregulation will lead to AI dominance.

Jordan Wilson [00:23:49]:
I don't know if that's the case. We'll see. Obviously, they have a lot of smart people working on this, but on paper, as I read through this, I was scratching my head a lot. A lot of things. You know, you're looking at one plus one not equaling two. But I know, you know, in the new Common Core math, I don't know if one plus one equals two anymore. So, you know, I was reading this and, you know, I was kind of thinking like, this is like Common Core Math. Like some things just aren't adding up in my head on paper.

Jordan Wilson [00:24:19]:
And I'm going to get to some of those contradictions here in a Second, the other couple things. Big tech are getting some environmental exceptions, federal contracts and regulatory relief while claiming to help workers. The government will enforce ideological purity in AI while they promote free speech and open source. Huge contradiction. And Republicans are going to be opposing their own party's state's rights if they support this plan. While Democrats are going to be preparing constitutional challenges and either succeeds in cementing American AI leadership or it creates regulatory chaos in legal warfare. So either way, you know, even though this isn't going to be something that you're going to see a lot of hard breaking news on, we'll probably check back in on it in 2025 and see how or if this winning the race, America's AI action plan has or maybe hasn't contributed to AI innovation here in the U.S. all right, let's get to the four juicy storylines to watch.

Jordan Wilson [00:25:31]:
Yeah, this one is big, kind of the big tech climate commitments versus coal expansion. So as an example, Microsoft has pledged being carbon negative by 2030. Google has pledged to be net zero by 2030. Yet this plan explicitly calls for expanding coal and natural gas generation to build all of these AI data centers. So how does that work? So are these big tech companies going to break their climate pledges or are they going to oppose the White House's AI action plan on how it should be carried out? I'm guessing they'll silently do the latter. Or maybe we'll see some amendments to this plan. Or maybe just some parts aren't just gonna, you know, it's gonna be like jaywalking. People just aren't gonna look at certain parts and just IGN them.

Jordan Wilson [00:26:30]:
Here's another big one. The states rights champions versus federal control. Here's what that means. This one's interesting because this administration has hung its hat on states rights, right, for these hot button issues. Abortion, education, guns. You know, this administration has said states rights, yet not when it comes to AI. When it comes to AI, states have no rights. And they're threatening to withhold federal funding from any state that regulates AI that doesn't jive with their overall strategy.

Jordan Wilson [00:27:14]:
And even Republican governors and 99 out of a hundred U. S senators voted to essentially oppose that same federal overreach. So it's going to be interesting. Is this going right? I think this is one of those things that's going to be quietly carried out. It's not really going to be talked about until you have that first state. Right. Obviously keep an eye on California, but specifically see if a Republican state comes out against this. If a Republican state which they will at some point, right? They're going to come out with laws regulating AI, probably for safety concerns, for job employment concerns.

Jordan Wilson [00:28:00]:
So it's, it's, it's, it's going to be like, hey, what's the first Republican state law that's really going to rub the White House the wrong way? And then it's going to be a fight. So we'll see. It's going to happen at some point. The other juicy storyline to watch, Open source promotion versus bias restriction. Yeah, doesn't make sense, right? This plan literally is championing open source AI as essential for American values. Yet they said that they will only give federal contracts, right? Dangling the money. Federal contracts are only going to go to unbiased AI models, right? They literally talk about what they call these kind of, or what they're referring to as these woke models, right. So it's going to be interesting how they decide to determine what's an unbiased model, right? Because with a little bit of tricky prompt engineering, you can get basically any AI model to say anything.

Jordan Wilson [00:29:15]:
They're generative, right? So it's, it's almost like, you know, which, which one of these, you know, models is going to go viral at the wrong time and the White House is going to make an example. Hot take here. I might look at Xai in Grok, right? So President Trump and Elon Musk had a very public breakup and even it's, it is kind of telling, I guess, right? So even Elon's own AI often speaks poorly of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. So maybe this is one of those that he decides to make an example of. I'm not sure. But also, open source can't, can be modified by anyone. So it's impossible for these two things to coexist and to guarantee objectivity, right? You can't push open source, but also say, hey, we're gonna determine what's biased or unbiased. It doesn't add up.

Jordan Wilson [00:30:25]:
And then related to this, the whole free speech protection versus ideological control because the plan claims to protect free speech and American values. Yet like we talked about, federal contracts are going to get excluded. Anyone that has diversity, inclusion or climate references. So if there's DEI references, climate references, yeah, those companies, those institutions might not get these federal contracts. And yeah, there's going to be a lot of, I believe, First Amendment challenges. So a lot to digest here in the new Winning the Race, America's AI action plan. But I'll tell you this, I have mixed thoughts on it. Parts of it, right? And, you know, people always reach out on, you know, Spotify, YouTube, I don't know.

Jordan Wilson [00:31:21]:
Right. And, you know, like, anti us right. And, you know, very pro China or pro, you know, certain other countries. I'm not trying to make this like, you know, the U. S. Versus the rest of the world, but I'm also trying to be honest about my perspective. Right. I'm from the US in the same way that I want the US to prosper economically, socially, as a global superpower.

Jordan Wilson [00:31:50]:
Right. I hope the same can happen for AI So I have mixed feelings about this parts of it. I look at this and I'm like, this is great. This is about time. But I'm also like, this is late, right? I mean, it's very. It's obviously very early in the Trump administration. So you have to tip your cap to the Trump administration for coming out with this AI Action plan. You know, only six months into President Trump's second term, this.

Jordan Wilson [00:32:25]:
Something a little more aggressive should have been done earlier. It should have been done by the Biden administration. Even though, you know, they were probably got hit with this in the middle of. Of their. Or, sorry, not the middle, but toward the latter half of Biden's term. I do think that his plan was a little too safe, right. A little too focused on regulation. But also this new plan from the Trump administration, although I do like certain parts of it, certain parts of it just seem overly political.

Jordan Wilson [00:33:08]:
Right. I don't think politics should play a role in AI but just. Just like anything, right? Just like, you know, oil, military, right? Department of Defense, like anything with money, anything. When we're talking billions, hundreds of billions of dollars, politics always come to play. So part of me is a little saddened, you know, reading this and seeing how overtly political parts of it are. But the other part of me is like, okay, this is good. This is aggressive, right? And if, you know, at least those listening, you know, here in the US if you do want the economy to succeed, if you want jobs to hopefully have more security in the long run, you have to root for AI right? It sounds weird. You have to root for the thing that may ultimately take many jobs.

Jordan Wilson [00:34:07]:
Because if the US does not win in AI, some other company will, and yet those jobs are still going to go away, right? So you at least hope that the US if you are from the US you at least hope that the US Is in control of AI and really leading the pack. So mixed feelings on this, but I did want to give a breakdown of everything that's inside of the White House AI Action Plan, what was announced and what it means. So hopefully you got a piece of that. But if you do want to read it for yourself, like I said, we're going to make sure to put it in today's newsletter. So thank you for tuning in. Please, if you haven't already, go to your everyday AI.com Sign up for the free free daily newsletter. We'll see you back tomorrow and every day for more Everyday AI. Thanks y'all.