“Americas AI Action Plan”: Can It Propel the U.S. to Lead the Global AI Race?

Vladimir Tsakanyan

On July 23, 2025, the White House released Americas AI Action Plan, a 28-page blueprint intended to secure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence. The plan emphasizes three pillars: accelerating innovation, building AI infrastructure, and asserting global leadership. But does it live up to its promise? And where does it fall short? Lets break it down straight forward, then deeper.

1. What the plan pledges (in plain terms)

• Workforce Upskilling: Expand AI education, retraining, and continuous labor-market evaluation via DOL, NSF, and DOE.
• Deregulation of Data Centers: Roll back environmental and administrative barriers hampering AI
  infrastructure.
• Bias-Free Procurement: Prioritize contracting only with AI developers free from ideological bias.
• Rewrite AI Governance: Replace Biden-era safety-focused executive orders with pro-innovation regulations.

1. Strategic strengths (professional nuance)

• Bold central vision: Establishes clear national goals around economic productivity, labor transition, and global competitiveness.
• Infrastructure-coupled with education: Linking data center deregulation with AI workforce development offers a strong productivity pipeline.
• Leveraging federal procurement: Government contracts can reward U.S.-friendly, bias-controlled AI companies.

3. Strategic weak points (clear critique)

• Too much deregulation: Risks unsustainable power consumption and undermines energy policy.
• Undefined bias-free criteria: Politicized enforcement risks inconsistency with ethical fairness.
• Governance gap on safety: No detailed plan for dual-use or high-risk AI oversight.
• Underfunded public research: Over-focus on private infrastructure undermines long-term foundational R&D.

3. Recommendations for a winning strategy

• Institute a compute-cap threshold review: Require risk assessment before high-compute model deployment.
• Create transparent bias-free standards: Use technical metrics or third-party audits.
• Tie facility expansion to clean energy: Avoid climate accountability rollback.
• Increase federal investment in open foundational research: Support university-led experimentation.
• Establish an AI Safety Unit within OSTP: Balance innovation and risk governance

Final verdict: Possible but only with nuance
Yes the Action Plans ambition could re-ignite U.S. AI leadership. It’s the right direction: link infrastructure,
skills, and procurement. But ignoring safety guardrails and regulatory precision risks undermining
credibility and sustainability. America can still win the race, only if this strategy is fine-tuned with standards, safeguards, and meaningful public investment at its core.
In conclusion, Americas AI Action Plan sets the foundation, but winning the global race requires a more
sophisticated strategy: marry deregulation and speed with safeguards and scientific investment. Without that balance, the U.S. may sprint ahead but stumble before the finish line.