Hostile takeover

Last week, the White House released an “AI Action Plan” and three executive orders on artificial intelligence: “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” “Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack,” and “Preventing Woke AI In the Federal Government.” The overall goal is to develop AI as fast as possible by removing bureaucratic impediments and export controls on chips and other equipment, placing data centers on federal land, promoting energy production to power them (as long as it isn’t renewable energy), and integrating AI systems into the federal government. All that’s asked of the AI companies themselves is to make sure their large language models (LLMs) promote a Trump-friendly view of the world.

[...]

“So from this day forward, it'll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence,” he said. “Such an important thing happening. This is really something that nobody expected. It just popped out of the air, and here we are.”

And of course, Trump contrasted his approach with that of President Biden, about whom he said, “You would've spent a lot of money and you wouldn't have been able to win. They didn't allow you to win. But we have a plan which only admires and respects the winners.”

[...]

“If you are operating under 50 different sets of state laws, the most restrictive state of all will be the one that rules,” he said. “So you could have a state run by a crazy governor, a governor that hates you, a governor that's not smart, or maybe a governor that's very smart, but decides that he doesn't like the industry and he can put you out of business because you're going to have to go to that lowest common denominator.”

  Public Notice

Hmmmmm...Dobbs? CASA?

Trump also endorsed the AI companies’ desire to utilize copyrighted works without compensating the authors.

“You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for. ‘Gee, I read a book. I'm supposed to pay somebody,’” he said. “And we appreciate that, but you just can't do it because it's not doable.”

Proof by assertion.

But the really good stuff — at least as far as Trump and his movement are concerned — is in the “Preventing Woke AI” executive order.

In order to stamp out “pervasive and destructive” DEI ideology, the order insists that AI models must be free of “incorporation of concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism, unconscious bias, intersectionality, and systemic racism.” Only banishing those ideas will demonstrate a sufficient “commitment to truth” and ensure “reliable AI.” The order does note that its ambitions are limited: “While the Federal Government should be hesitant to regulate the functionality of AI models in the private marketplace, in the context of Federal procurement, it has the obligation not to procure models that sacrifice truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.” It also insists that “LLMs shall be neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as DEI.”

Isn't that non-neutral in itself? Sorry, I keep trying to insert logic.

This leaves AI companies with a choice: Either create two sets of AI systems — one for general use, and a right-wing version for government — or just make all their systems Trump-compliant.