White House Issues Executive Orders on AI Action Plan

Introduction and Overview 

On July 23, 2025, pursuant to the Trump administration's Executive Order 14179 ("Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence"), the White House unveiled a comprehensive AI Action Plan, accompanied by three new AI-focused executive orders. The Plan aims to secure U.S. global leadership in AI by removing regulatory obstacles to innovation, expanding domestic AI infrastructure, and promoting U.S. AI systems, computing hardware, infrastructure, and standards globally.  

Strategic Pillars of the AI Action Plan 

The AI Action Plan is built on three pillars: (i) accelerating AI innovation; (ii) building AI infrastructure; and (iii) leading in international AI diplomacy and security. The federal government aims to remove regulatory barriers to innovation and growth, foster improved access to AI technology and its enabling datasets, and accelerate adoption of AI across both government and industry. The Plan emphasizes ramping up domestic semiconductor manufacturing, expanding data center and power grid capacity, and ensuring AI systems are truthful, neutral, and free from ideological bias. 

The Plan uses the phrase "Build, Baby, Build!" to underscore its core theme of rapidly expanding critical infrastructure, including through streamlined permitting for data centers and energy projects to meet the needs of AI development and keep pace with global competitors like China. The Plan prioritizes domestic manufacturing and empowering American workers through AI training and education, ensuring that AI-driven economic growth benefits American workers. It also calls for the establishment of AI Centers of Excellence (regulatory sandboxes) to accelerate AI adoption in highly regulated industries, and it directs federal agencies to monitor for risks such as misuse, theft, and other emerging threats. Internationally, the plan seeks to export American AI technology, counter Chinese influence in AI governance and standards, and strengthen export controls to protect U.S. leadership and security. 

Unlike the European Union's risk-based, prescriptive AI Act or China's centralized, security-driven controls, the U.S. Plan is deregulatory and market-driven. The Plan rejects broad, early-stage regulation, instead favoring a pro-innovation environment and leveraging federal procurement and funding to shape the AI ecosystem. The Plan directs: (i) the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") to evaluate whether state AI regulations inhibit the FCC's ability to carry out its obligations; (ii) the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") to consider a state's AI regulatory climate when making funding decisions; and (iii) the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") to investigate all past and future FTC enforcement actions, orders, consent decrees, and injunctions and modify or set them aside if they unduly burden AI innovation. Notably, the Plan does not explicitly preempt state laws regulating AI, thus leaving room for continuing development of a patchwork of state-level AI rules and the resulting compliance complexity for organizations operating nationwide. 

The Plan outlines numerous recommended policy actions without specifying detailed timelines for many of them and is supplemented by three executive orders. 

Preventing "Woke AI" in Federal Procurement 

Executive Order 14319 ("Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government") mandates that all federal agencies procure and implement only large language models ("LLMs") that follow two "Unbiased AI Principles": truth-seeking and ideological neutrality. The order specifically prohibits the use of AI models that incorporate "ideological dogmas such as DEI," including through "the suppression or distortion of factual information about race or sex." Agencies must ensure that procured LLMs prioritize historical accuracy, scientific objectivity, and transparency regarding any encoded "partisan or ideological judgments." The OMB is directed to issue guidance to agencies within 120 days. 

Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure 

Executive Order 14318 ("Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure") is designed to ease federal regulatory burdens and expedite the construction of large-scale AI data centers and supporting infrastructure, including energy and semiconductor facilities. The order focuses on efficiency and transparency, streamlining environmental reviews, expanding the use of federal lands for data center projects, and encouraging the use of brownfield and Superfund sites. It also revokes President Biden's Executive Order 14141 ("Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure"). 

Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack 

Executive Order 14320 ("Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack") establishes the American AI Exports Program, a coordinated effort to support the global deployment of U.S.-origin AI technologies and reduce international dependence on adversarial AI systems. The program invites industry consortia to submit proposals for "full-stack" AI export packages—including hardware, models, and applications—targeted at specific countries or regions. Proposals selected by the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with other Department leaders, will receive federal support including financing, diplomatic engagement, and technical assistance.