Trump's AI Roadmap: Key Details on His forthcoming Tech Policy

Update 10:00am PT: The full release of Trump's AI Action Plan occurred after this article was published. Read TechCrunch's coverage of the complete plan here.

President Donald Trump is set to introduce his highly anticipated AI Action Plan at a Washington D.C. event on Wednesday, organized by Silicon Valley insiders. This marks his first major speech on artificial intelligence since beginning his second term in January.

The AI Action Plan is expected to outline the Trump administration's strategic priorities, focus areas, and concerns regarding AI—a technology poised to define the 47th president's tenure.

This plan effectively replaces the Biden administration's AI executive order, which emphasized mandatory safety and security reports from AI companies and sought to mitigate racial and other biases in advanced AI models. Trump revoked Biden's order shortly after taking office, arguing its requirements imposed excessive burdens on AI firms and risked stifling American innovation.

During its first six months, the Trump administration has actively promoted initiatives to accelerate the development and deployment of American AI technologies. Trump supported the announcement of OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank's multi-billion dollar Stargate data center project and eased restrictions on Nvidia's global sales of AI chips.

Concurrently, Trump's AI advisor David Sacks has publicly challenged technology companies over what he calls "woke" AI, accusing OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google of embedding left-leaning values into their AI chatbots and suppressing conservative perspectives.

Critics have already voiced opposition to Trump's AI Action Plan, alleging it prioritizes corporate interests over public welfare. On Tuesday, a coalition of over 90 organizations—including labor, environmental justice, and consumer protection nonprofits—published an open letter titled the People's AI Action Plan. This document proposes alternative AI policies claiming to center the interests of American citizens and counter Trump's anticipated announcements.

Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, and Sequoia Capital are among the prominent names joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They'll share valuable insights to drive startup growth and sharpen your competitive edge. Don't miss TechCrunch Disrupt's 20th anniversary—an opportunity to learn from leading tech voices. Secure your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices increase.

Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda

Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, and Sequoia Capital are among the prominent names joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They'll share valuable insights to drive startup growth and sharpen your competitive edge. Don't miss TechCrunch Disrupt's 20th anniversary—an opportunity to learn from leading tech voices. Secure your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices increase.

"We cannot allow Big Tech and Big Oil lobbyists to shape AI and economic regulations at the expense of our freedoms, equality, and the well-being of workers and families," the coalition stated in a comment to TechCrunch, acknowledging the substantial energy demands of Silicon Valley's AI data centers.

Trump's AI Action Plan is intended to advance his administration's agenda more clearly, though specific implementation details remain uncertain. Trump is expected to elaborate on the plan at the "Winning the AI Race" summit, an event co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum and the All In podcast, which Sacks co-hosts outside his government and venture capital roles.

Here’s what we currently know about the AI Action Plan.

Accelerating American AI

According to a Time Magazine report, Trump's AI strategy will center on three core pillars: infrastructure, innovation, and global influence.

On infrastructure, the Trump administration plans to streamline permitting regulations to accelerate AI data center construction. This initiative aims to help AI companies address the escalating energy requirements for training and operating AI models. However, experts warn that the rapid expansion of AI data centers—which consume vast quantities of energy and water from local communities—could precipitate energy shortages by the decade's end without a corresponding surge in energy production.

The infrastructure component is also projected to include strategies for modernizing the U.S. electrical grid and integrating new energy sources to support these data centers, Time reported.

Regarding innovation, Trump intends to use the AI Action Plan to renew discussions about preempting state-level AI legislation, despite a recent federal proposal on the issue failing decisively last month. This effort seeks to lower barriers to innovation for American AI companies but could potentially prevent lawmakers from enacting crucial safety and security standards for the AI industry.

For global influence, Trump is expected to introduce measures to promote the worldwide adoption of American AI models and semiconductors. Federal officials have expressed concern over the emergence of DeepSeek and other Chinese AI labs like Qwen and Moonshot AI, which have become formidable competitors to OpenAI. Trump aims to establish American technology as the global benchmark.

To support these objectives, the Trump administration is anticipated to sign multiple AI-related executive orders on Wednesday, as reported by The Washington Post. Some orders will facilitate faster data center development, while others will promote the export of American technologies.

Combatting “woke” AI

One executive order Trump is expected to sign on Wednesday would target so-called "woke" AI models, according to a Wall Street Journal report this week. The order would mandate that AI companies with federal contracts—including OpenAI, xAI, Google, and Anthropic—ensure their models use neutral and unbiased language.

This crackdown represents the Republican party's latest offensive against Silicon Valley's perceived left-leaning bias. In previous years, Republicans investigated social media platforms for allegedly manipulating algorithms to suppress conservative voices. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently conceded to these claims and revised Facebook and Instagram's content moderation policies to include a wider range of perspectives.

A critical issue surrounding this executive order is determining who defines AI model neutrality or bias and how such assessments are made. While Trump has consistently positioned himself as a free speech advocate, an executive order regulating AI speech content may appear contradictory. However, a recent Florida court ruling determined that AI chatbots are not covered by First Amendment protections.

In response to these developments, OpenAI and other AI labs have attempted to make their chatbots reflect more diverse viewpoints. These companies face the challenging task of generating AI responses that satisfy diverse audiences while avoiding the propagation of extremist views or misinformation.

Elon Musk, formerly Trump's primary financial supporter though their relationship has recently cooled, explicitly founded xAI to develop an "anti-woke" AI chatbot named Grok as a counter to ChatGPT. However, xAI's attempts to create such a chatbot have encountered difficulties. Recently, xAI issued multiple apologies after its AI chatbot made antisemitic remarks and referenced Musk's personal opinions on controversial topics.

What Silicon Valley and Big Tech want

In April, the White House reported receiving over 10,000 public comments from corporations, local governments, and nonprofit organizations regarding Trump's AI Action Plan.

OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon used this opportunity to submit their preferred AI policy recommendations for the Trump administration to consider.

Many leading American AI model developers urged Trump to use the AI Action Plan to affirm that training large language models on copyrighted material constitutes fair use and should be permitted.

Such protection could substantially benefit these companies, many of which are currently engaged in litigation with copyright holders from the music, film, news, and publishing industries. These content creators have alleged that AI companies illegally trained their models on copyrighted works, potentially devaluing their intellectual property.

Meanwhile, Meta requested that Trump protect open AI models—those freely available for online download. By openly releasing its Llama models, Meta has managed to compete effectively against OpenAI and Google's proprietary offerings. However, Anthropic has raised concerns about whether open AI models might enable dangerous actors, including China, to access powerful technologies.

Other stakeholders, such as The Future of Life Institute, used the public comment period to advocate for increased investment in AI research outside commercial entities. This request comes as the Trump administration and certain government agencies have reduced funding for American universities, institutions that have driven scientific innovation for decades.

Trump's AI Action Plan is unlikely to include the same safety and security reporting requirements that the Biden administration attempted to establish. Nevertheless, polls indicate that most Americans support holding AI companies to specific safety standards.

Several state legislators are advancing bills that would establish safety and security reporting mandates, though these measures may encounter resistance from the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers if they conflict with the AI Action Plan.