Trump’s AI Action Plan Serves Big Tech, Not the American People
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Trump Administration released its “AI Action Plan” which dismantles key consumer, civil rights, and environmental protections in the name of accelerating artificial intelligence development. The plan revokes the Biden-era AI Executive Order, fast-tracks federal permits for energy-intensive data centers, weakens oversight of AI used in federal procurement, and conditions federal funding on states scrapping their consumer AI protections. The plan is a reckless blueprint that prioritizes corporate profits and geopolitical posturing over safety, accountability, and democratic values.
Public Citizen’s Big Tech accountability advocate J.B. Branch offered the following statement:
“Under this plan, tech giants get sweetheart deals while everyday Americans will see their electricity bills rise to subsidize discounted power for massive AI data centers. States are held hostage: either stop protecting their residents from dangerous, untested AI products, or lose federal funding. Perhaps the most disturbing, this administration rails against so-called ‘woke AI,’ yet an antisemitic chatbot operated by Elon Musk is receiving millions in federal contracts, and the plan calls for more reliance on such AI tools. This isn’t leadership — it’s a sellout. Americans deserve an AI future rooted in safety, fairness, and accountability — not a handout to billionaires.”
Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman added:
“This is an AI plan written by Big Tech. The Trump AI plan manages both to buy into the AI over-hype and simultaneously put America on a path to a weaker AI landscape — and a weaker country overall. A serious AI plan would recognize that the regulation to which this administration is so hostile facilitates innovation — it can help us ensure that we have AI for social good, rather than just corporate profit. If AI delivers on even a fraction of its technological promise, then it is vital that we place guardrails in place to ensure basic norms of truthfulness are maintained, the climate crisis is not supercharged, people’s work is not appropriated by Big Tech, discrimination is intensified, wealth is not further concentrated, costs are imputed to the AI companies not their victims and catastrophic risks are avoided.”
Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert concluded:
“One of the most dangerous components of the EO is that it paves the way for the creation of numerous new sprawling, energy-hungry AI data centers — without requiring environmental review or local input. This EO is a fossil fuel subsidy in disguise, with communities left to deal with the pollution, water usage, and infrastructure strain. Still worse, it’s on the public’s dime. The EO will seemingly hand billions in public funds to dirty energy and tech corporations — many of which have already unleashed unsafe, exploitative AI tools. These giveaways will supercharge private profits while the public bears all the risks — environmental and those from unchecked AI tech.”