On July 23, President Donald Trump released his administration's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan, a wide-ranging, whole-of-government approach to winning the AI race. As a lifelong Democrat and public servant, there are very few issue areas on which I agree with President Trump. But his plan for American AI leadership is a strong step in pursuing a goal that must transcend the wide partisan divide: ensuring the United States – and not our foreign adversaries – is who shapes the digital future.
Critically, the plan prioritizes increasing cybersecurity protections around AI-specific vulnerabilities, new investments in energy and grid modernization, and permitting reform to clear the way for rapid development.
The stakes and urgency of this moment cannot be understated. And we cannot take our AI leadership for granted. China, our chief competitor in the technologies that will determine global leadership, is investing extensive resources in AI development as part of its national strategy to dominate the industry by 2030. So far this decade, China has pumped $1.4 trillion in state funds into its tech sector, and by 2030, its total investment is projected to reach $2.8 trillion. While China invests massive resources in its AI industry, it is undermining American tech development by hacking and stealing intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets, costing the United States upwards of $500 billion per year.
After more than 20 years in the intelligence community, I know that state-sponsored cyber operations represent a severe threat to our national security and economic prosperity. China is also already exploiting AI to ramp up cyber operations targeting the U.S. government, our critical infrastructure, and private industry.
To confront this threat, the AI Action plan calls for essential investments in intelligence sharing around AI-specific vulnerabilities and public-private partnerships to ensure collaboration with private industry on AI defenses. Additionally, it establishes new standards for high-security data centers used by the military and intelligence community, helping to prevent cyber threats from state actors.
Crucial to this is ensuring that we are investing in and modernizing our power grid and investing in energy generation to support increasing pressure from data centers and AI-enabled advancements.
Right here in Pennsylvania, we are already seeing how AI can drive new investments in energy and create jobs, all while potentially driving down energy costs. During the recent Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, tech leaders committed $92 billion in energy and AI investments in the state. This included a $25 billion investment from Blackstone in data center and energy infrastructure and a partnership between Google and Brookfield to support two hydropower facilities in the state. This funding will position Pennsylvania to become a leader in both AI development and energy generation to support new-AI enabled industries unlocking the vast opportunities that lie in this whole-of-country plan.
These infrastructure investments are creating unprecedented demand for skilled workers nationwide. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that AI and related technology infrastructure development alone will create over 240,000 new skilled trades jobs by 2033, including 84,300 electricians, 40,100 HVAC workers, and 115,400 construction laborers, and this doesn't include the additional demand from traditional construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure needs.
As Mike Rowe, host of "Dirty Jobs," recently noted, "We are entering the golden age of plumbing, steam fitting, pipe fitting, welding, HVAC" because of AI infrastructure needs. This represents a generational opportunity to revitalize blue-collar communities while positioning our nation for technological leadership.
However, without reforming our permitting and environmental review processes, these new investments could take decades to materialize. Too often, our energy investments – including in clean energy – have been hamstrung by overly complex and slow review processes. In the high-stakes race with China, that is time we simply do not have. That's why I was glad to see the AI Action Plan prioritize knocking down redundant regulatory barriers to new data center and power generation infrastructure, through steps like streamlining environmental reviews and opening up idle lands to energy and AI development.
While this plan represents substantial progress in ensuring that
America continues to lead in the development of this technology, a
plan is only so good as its follow-through. Congress must now also
do its part by moving quickly to codify the AI Action Plan and
address remaining investment gaps.
In particular, Congress should protect existing fair use copyright
law, so our models can be trained with sufficient, high-quality
data. It should also freeze state-based AI regulations for the next
decade, as more than 1,000 pending bills threaten to create a
regulatory nightmare for our AI industry.
Additionally, Congress should look to mobilize funding for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and research and development (R&D), leveraging America's world-class institutions of higher education, as well as expanding investments in basic R&D. This is important as China's R&D spending continues to outpace our own.
Despite my many differences with the President, I support this AI Action Plan, which should serve as a rallying call to all who share a vision of a world led and shaped by American values. Let's work together to ensure that America's continued AI leadership enables a new generation of American prosperity and security.
Originally published by DC Journal.
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