Photo credit: Tomasz Zielonka
The White House has officially announced the “American AI Action Plan.” It is touted as a “roadmap to victory” in the global AI dominance competition.
Spanning nearly 30 pages, the plan covering the north of 90 policy measures, coincided with the trio’s executive order. Also, there are quite a few moving parts here, but both AI action plans and orders are primarily related to the greater importance of non-IP topics and artificial intelligence.
(For reference, one of the orders is working on the government’s “preventing AI for Awakening,” while the second concerns accelerating data centre permissions.
“Industrial Revolution, Information Revolution, Renaissance – Everything at once,” is partially explained in the AI Action Plan. “This is the possibility that AI presents. The opportunity to stand in front of us is inspiring and humble. And it’s ours that we grab, or lose.”
To match that framing, the plan itself has three pillars. Accelerate AI innovation, build American AI infrastructure, and lead international AI diplomacy and security.
The first pillar behind these titles appears to be the only pillar that touches (but not diving in) the intersection of AI and IP. For example, that section explores some of the pitfalls of AI-generated synthetic media, with regard to the “new challenges to the legal system” presented.
(And another section will cover steps designed to promote AI adoption within the Department of Defense. Last month, Spotify Head Daniel Ek led another large funding round for AI defense firm Helsing.
Nevertheless, the two components of the plan are worth highlighting when it comes to IP. The first is the only mention of intellectual property. “It is also essential for the US government to effectively address security risks to American AI companies, talent, intellectual property and systems,” reads the related text.
The second comes from the first action of the first pillar, emphasizing that “AI is too important to suffocate bureaucracy at this early stage, whether at the state or federal level.”
“The federal government should not allow AI-related federal funds to be directed to states with burdensome AI regulations that waste these funds,” the document says, “should not interfere with the right to pass prudent laws that are not overly restricted by innovation.”
With that in mind, President Trump worked on copyright protection during his AI Summit speech. These comments start with the 20 minute mark.
“When every article, a book, or anything else you read, study, or study, you cannot expect to have a successful AI program when you are supposed to pay,” the president said in part.
“When people read books or articles, you gain great knowledge. That doesn’t mean you’re violating copyright laws or have to deal with all content providers.
“Of course, you cannot copy or plagiarize articles,” he continued. “But if you read the article and learn from it, you need to make sure that AI can use that pool of knowledge without experiencing the complexity of contract negotiations where there are thousands of people each time it uses it.”
In short, these statements and the sentiment of the comprehensive AI action plan are significantly different from those of the recently introduced AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act.
When it broke down yesterday, the bipartisan bill appears to set the stage for lawsuits against AI developers who use “covered data” (including copyrighted works, etc.) without approval. Following their logical conclusion, the path to passing legislation is unknown.
At the same time, the industry certainly isn’t without the council shaking. And the logic suggests that the Retooled No Fakes Act has a relative tooth to it, currently backed by the AI companies themselves, and still has a good shot at becoming law. Meanwhile, the high stakes lawsuit and reported licensing talks are in full swing.
