Thoughts on America’s AI Action Plan (www.anthropic.com)

The White House has unveiled "Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan," a strategic framework aimed at securing America’s leadership in AI development through bolstered infrastructure, expanded federal adoption, and strengthened safety and security measures. The plan aligns closely with Anthropic’s earlier policy recommendations, particularly emphasizing streamlined data center and energy permitting to support domestic AI growth, thus preventing the outsourcing of sensitive AI operations abroad. Additionally, it targets federal obstacles to AI adoption by proposing regulatory reforms, updated procurement standards, and increased public-private collaboration in defense and national security sectors. Significantly, the plan underscores democratizing AI benefits via programs like the National AI Research Resource pilot and workforce retraining initiatives, reflecting a commitment to inclusive AI progress. On safety, it prioritizes research on AI interpretability, control, and adversarial robustness while supporting NIST’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation’s role in evaluating frontier AI models’ national security risks. However, Anthropic stresses the need for more robust, nationally standardized transparency and safety reporting for AI development to manage catastrophic risks responsibly. A critical area of concern remains maintaining stringent export controls, especially regarding high-performance chips like Nvidia’s H20. Anthropic warns that loosening such controls risks empowering foreign adversaries, notably China, by enhancing their AI compute capacity. The organization advocates for sustained federal leadership in imposing clear, cohesive safety standards and export restrictions to keep America at the forefront of safe, secure, and ethical AI innovation.