Pictured is an image of a video posted to X on Jan. 23, 2025 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of his company’s planned artificial intelligence infrastructure site in Abilene, Texas. West Virginia is one of 16 states being considered by OpenAI for potential sites for a $500 billion multi-campus infrastructure project.
Pictured is an image of a video posted to X on Jan. 23, 2025 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of his company’s planned artificial intelligence infrastructure site in Abilene, Texas. West Virginia is one of 16 states being considered by OpenAI for potential sites for a $500 billion multi-campus infrastructure project.
In one of his first initiatives after taking the oath of office as the 47th president, Donald Trump revoked President Joe Biden’s executive order that hampered private-sector development and deployment of artificial intelligence in the United States. This policy will prove worthwhile, putting the United States on the cutting edge of this revolutionary technology.
AI is estimated to contribute close to $4 trillion to our economy in just a few years and has the potential to transform our lives in areas like health care, education and finance.
AI is already working its way into life in various ways. For example, hotels can adjust rates based on demand using algorithmic pricing tools. The same goes for airlines, which raise and drop prices to ensure maximum loads on their aircraft. Even the government finds the attraction of pricing algorithms irresistible, frequently allowing its private-sector partners in toll roads to use this technology to avoid congestion on these concessions.
The dramatic financial market reaction when Chinese startup DeepSeek released its AI chatbot underlines the stakes. Despite U.S. attempts to restrict its access to the technologies that companies have emphasized in their development of AI, DeepSeek managed to develop a comparable product using less-sophisticated hardware and at a far lower cost.
The United States and China are racing to achieve supremacy in this arena, having expended nearly $1 trillion over the past decade, much of which was financed by the Chinese government. The results of this investment are starting to show. Earlier this month, word leaked that the Chinese military has a plan to attack and neutralize America’s Starlink Satellite system using AI technology in the event of a conflict with Taiwan. AI has clear real-world implications, and the United States must lead, not follow.
Trump’s decision to facilitate AI development and deployment, rather than enmeshing it in regulatory red tape, represents a sea change from how the Biden administration viewed AI. This view can be described as suspicious, if not downright hostile. The Biden Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission did not hesitate to use the bureaucratic and legal tools to regulate, stifle and undermine this technology, asserting that it was responsible for raising prices across the economy.
Not only was its series of actions against AI wrong — few economic, legal or technology scholars believe that technology was responsible for the rise in prices over the last four years — but it also threatened to stifle this AI innovation just as it is about to launch. Officials expressed admiration of European-style regulation, seemingly without recognizing that it is an important part of why AI-related venture capital deals in Europe are only a quarter of U.S. investments.
Meanwhile, as the Biden administration was busy challenging the use of this technology in the private sector, governments were busy employing algorithmic pricing. Did the administration not recognize this? Did it believe that it, too, should face antitrust lawsuits?
This seeming governmental knowledge gap is precisely the problem. Benefits and risks arise from how AI is used, not from its existence. Enforcement should pursue tangible and concrete consumer harm, not speculative possibilities. Just as we regulate specific uses of computers, we should regulate specific uses of AI, not the broader technologies of computing or AI.
Trump has surrounded himself with very smart tech minds, and one of their primary points of focus should be ensuring federal agencies have the flexibility to accommodate and facilitate the AI revolution. The government also must ensure that AI developers have reasonable access to the data that is necessary to build and train models and the electricity necessary to run them. Working with the private sector to lead the AI revolution will pay massive dividends. Now is the time to be bold
It is hoped the new administration will lead to common sense prevailing at Justice and that this lawsuit against algorithmic pricing will be resolved. The government must allow innovators to innovate. Failure to do so will hinder the brave new world of AI before it has a chance to take off.
J. Howard Beales III is an emeritus professor of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington University School of Business. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
