Akin Intelligence - July 2025

Welcome to the July edition of Akin Intelligence.

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In This Issue

• Akin Spotlight
• Federal Action
• Congressional Action
• State Action
• EU and UK Updates
• Akin Thought Leadership

Akin Spotlight

White House Releases America's AI Action Plan

On July 23, 2025, the White House released America's AI Action Plan. The plan, initiated by President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order 14179, "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,"asserts that AI breakthroughs will "reshape the global balance of power, spark entirely new industries, and revolutionize the way we live and work." The plan emphasizes a "national security imperative" to secure technological dominance against global competitors, particularly China. The strategy is built on three pillars: Accelerate AI Innovation, Build American AI Infrastructure and Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security. Key principles include prioritizing American workers, ensuring AI systems are free from ideological bias and pursue objective truth and preventing the misuse or theft of advanced technologies by malicious actors. The plan aims to foster an "industrial revolution, an information revolution, and a renaissance— all at once" through AI.

Click here to read the full summary.

Federal Action

NSF Announces $100 Million for AI Research Institutes

On July 29, 2025, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with Capital One and Intel, announced a $100 million investment to support five National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institutes and a central community hub. The public-private investment aligns with the White House AI Action Plan and supports the goals in Executive Order 14277, Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. The AI institutes are designed to translate research into practical solutions and help build a national infrastructure for AI education and workforce development.

The awards include funding for two new AI Institutes, the NSF AI-MI and NSF ARIA, and continued funding for work at NSF AIVO, NSF IFML, NSF iSAT and NSF MMLI.

• NSF AI-Materials Institute (NSF AI-MI). Led by Cornell University, the NSF AI-MI aims to propel foundational AI research to accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials for sustainable energy, electronics, environmental stewardship and quantum technologies. It will create the AI Materials Science Ecosystem, a cloud-based portal that couples a science-ready large language model with multimodal data streams (experimental measurements, simulations, images and textual literature), and implement an educational program that covers AI and materials science across all levels of instruction.
• NSF AI Research Institute on InterAction for AI Assistants (NSF ARIA). Led by Brown University, the NSF ARIA will accelerate the development of next-generation AI assistants in the mental and behavioral health field, where trust, empathy and personalization are critical. The project seeks to bring together researchers in computer science, neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, law and education together with mental health practitioners and civil society groups, and also grow a future-ready workforce through K-12 and postgraduate training in the technical and ethical dimensions of AI.
• NSF AI Institutes Virtual Organization (NSF AIVO). Led by the University of California, Davis, the NSF AIVO serves as a national hub for the AI Institutes network. It connects federally funded AI Institutes, government stakeholders and the public, helps form new publicprivate partnerships and promotes public engagement.
• NSF AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (NSF IFML). Led by the University of Texas at Austin, the NSF IFML seeks to develop foundational tools and new mathematical theories to advance the state of the art in generative AI. This project will focus on frameworks for modeling AI training and inference to create efficient solutions and develop AI expertise through an online masters initiative and activities targeting high-school students.
• NSF Institute for Student AI-Teaming (NSF iSAT). Led by the University of Colorado, the NSF iSAT pursues the national need to develop a world-leading AI workforce, using AI in K-12 classrooms to promote student success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This project will design a semester-long program designed to develop students' AI literacy, along with curriculum-linked professional learning for educators.
• NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute (NSF MMLI). Led by the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, the NSF MMLI is dedicated to developing AI tools, automated workflows and educational resources for molecular innovators to accelerate molecular discovery and broaden access to the expertise and mechanics of molecular synthesis. This project seeks to make progress toward fully autonomous molecular discovery and enhance workforce development and expert training.

GAO Issues Report on Generative AI Use and Management at Federal Agencies

On July 29, 2025, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on Generative AI Use and Management at Federal Agencies. The report finds that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing rapid growth, particularly the use of generative AI. The number of reported AI use cases—across 11 selected agencies—nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024, with generative AI use cases increasing nine-fold. This expansion is driven by the potential benefits that generative AI offers across various government functions, such as streamlining processes and services, improving communication, making data retrieval more efficient, enhancing citizen engagement and improving public health outcomes. This accelerated adoption, however, also brings significant challenges, such as complying with existing federal policies and guidance, having sufficient technical resources and budget, avoiding biased outputs and hallucinations, prioritizing transparency in AI tools and securing classified or sensitive data. The report discusses these benefits and challenges, as well as efforts across agencies to respond to these challenges by leveraging existing frameworks, updating guidance and taking actions to safeguard data.

NIST Releases and Seeks Comments on Outline for AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification and Validation Guidance

On July 29, 2025, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released an Outline: Proposed Zero Draft for a Standard on AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification and Validation (TEVV). The outline proposes a direction and structure for the forthcoming TEVV zero draft, which is intended to provide a foundational framework to help AI practitioners tailor TEVV approaches to specific systems and use cases.

NIST is seeking public comments on the Outline. Comments submitted by September 12, 2025, will be considered for NIST's initial public draft of the text; input received later will be considered for incorporation into subsequent iterations. Comments can be submitted via email to ai-standards@nist.gov.

President Trump Signs Executive Orders on AI

On July 23, 2025, President Trump signed three Executive Orders following the release of America's AI Action Plan. These Orders aim to advance the United States' leadership in artificial intelligence by addressing key areas identified in the Action Plan, including infrastructure development, promoting the export of American AI technology and maintaining unbiased AI systems.

1. "Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure"

This Order aims to facilitate the buildout of AI data centers and related infrastructure by easing Federal regulatory burdens.

• Revokes Executive Order 14141, Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (Jan. 14, 2025).
• Prioritizes use of federally owned land and resources for data center development.
• Directs the Secretary of Commerce to provide financial support for Qualifying Projects, which include data center projects with significant capital expenditures, electric load addition or national security importance.
• Mandates Federal agencies to identify and establish new categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline environmental reviews for qualifying projects.
• Expedites Qualifying Projects through the FAST-41 process, allowing for designation as a transparency project, publication on the Permitting Dashboard and expedited transition to a covered project
• Directs the EPA administrator to streamline permitting regulations under major environmental laws (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA and TSCA) and identify Brownfield and Superfund Sites for productive use by Qualifying Projects.
• Initiates programmatic consultations under the Endangered Species Act and review of nationwide permits issued under the Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act to facilitate efficient biological and water permitting.
• Requires the Departments of Interior, Energy and Defense to identify and make Federal and military lands available for Qualifying Projects, as appropriate and to support the Department of Defense's energy, workforce and mission needs.

2. Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack

This Order seeks to ensure that American technologies, standards and governance models are adopted worldwide to strengthen relationships with allies and secure America's continued technological dominance.

• Directs the Secretary of Commerce to create the "American AI Exports Program" within 90 days to support the development and deployment of United States full-stack AI export packages, and issues a public call for proposals from industry consortia for inclusion in the Program.
• Requires the proposals to:
  • Include a full-stack AI technology package, which encompasses AI-optimized computer hardware (e.g., chips, servers and accelerators), data center storage, cloud services, and networking; data pipelines and labeling systems; AI models and systems; security measures; and AI applications for specific use-cases
  • Identify target countries or regional blocs for export engagement
  • Describe a business model, including which entities will build, own and operate data centers and associated infrastructure
  • Detail requested Federal incentives and support
  • Comply with all US export control regimes, outbound investment regulations and end-user policies.
• Directs the Commerce Secretary to evaluate and designate proposals as "priority AI export packages" that will receive priority access to Federal financing tools.
• Mobilizes Federal financing tools through the Economic Diplomacy Action Group (EDAG) to support the priority AI export packages with direct loans, loan guarantees, equity investments, co-financing, political risk insurance, credit guarantees, and technical assistance and feasibility studies.
• Tasks EDAG with promoting AI deployment and export by developing a unified Federal Government strategy; coordinating resources, fostering pro-innovation environments in partner countries; analyzing market access, including barriers that may impede competitiveness of US offerings and coordinating with the Small Business Administration to facilitate AI-related investment in small businesses.

3. "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government"

This Order addresses concerns about ideological bias in Large Language Models (LLMs) procured by the Federal government. The Order highlights examples where AI models altered historical facts or showed bias base on race or sex, and states that its purpose is to ensure reliable and accurate AI outputs by preventing ideological biases and social agendas, such as "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) concepts, from distorting information in AI models. The Order seeks to build on Executive Order 13960, Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government (Dec. 3, 2020).

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