White House Unveils AI Action Plan

The White House has released an AI Action Plan that incorporates many policy goals and recommended actions from business advocacy groups, including the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

The AI Action Plan is intended as a roadmap for American leadership in the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) field. The document outlines broad policies that the federal government and federal agencies should pursue, and it identifies several actions agencies should take to further goals in three overarching areas: innovation, infrastructure and international diplomacy and security.

“The United States needs to innovate faster and more comprehensively than our competitors in the development and distribution of new AI technology across every field, and dismantle unnecessary regulatory barriers that hinder the private sector in doing so,” the AI Action Plan states.

Business advocacy groups have praised the plan as a comprehensive and forward-looking approach to federal AI policy. NAW said it was encouraged that the plan included several of the recommendations the association submitted during the Trump administration’s request-for-information process in March. Those recommended policy actions include:

• A federal framework to promote long-term AI innovation and infrastructure development through engagement with industry stakeholders such as wholesaler-distributors
• Leveraging existing federal laws and funding programs to reduce the regulatory complexity created by inconsistent state AI rules
• Clarifying potential legal barriers to adoption, including a review of past Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigations
• Workforce strategies that prioritize AI skills development and identify high-priority occupations for AI readiness
• Updated tax guidance confirming that AI training programs may qualify as eligible educational assistance under Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code

Other key components of the policy plan include encouraging the development of open-source AI, establishing AI Centers of Excellence nationwide where researchers and businesses can rapidly deploy and test AI tools and supporting next-generation manufacturing by identifying supply chain challenges to American robotics and drone manufacturing.

Taken together, those policy goals and actions will help to strengthen U.S. global leadership in AI, said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “This forward-looking plan takes steps to accelerate innovation by fixing a regulatory landscape hobbled by conflicting state-level laws and activist-driven overreach, streamlining permitting for critical AI infrastructure, ensuring reliable and affordable energy for consumers and businesses and advancing U.S. leadership in AI diplomacy,” he continued. “These proposed actions will position the United States to tackle our most pressing challenges and lead the global AI race by setting the gold standard for the development and deployment of responsible, transformative technologies.”