Biden issues order to boost AI infrastructure in US

US President Joe Biden will sign an order Tuesday to speed up the pace at which infrastructure for artificial intelligence development can be built in the country, the White House said, less than a week before he leaves office.

The executive order directs the US defense and energy departments to lease federal sites where the private sector can build AI data centers and new clean power facilities more quickly, according to the White House.

“Cutting-edge AI will have profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve Americans’ lives if harnessed responsibly,” said Biden in a statement.

“We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future,” he said.

The US president stressed that the world’s biggest economy should also not sacrifice environmental standards in this process.

But Biden’s order comes in the last few days of his administration, before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises a raft of changes to government policies.

“The volumes of computing power and electricity needed to train and operate frontier models are increasing rapidly and set to surge even more,” said Tarun Chhabra, a deputy assistant to the president.

By around 2028, officials expect that leading AI developers will be looking to run data centers for training cutting-edge AI models with energy needs of as much as five gigawatts, added Chhabra, also coordinator for technology and national security.

“The US must not repeat the errors of the past by letting critical technologies go overseas. This is a bipartisan imperative,” said Navtej Dhillon, the deputy director of the White House Economic Council, singling out China as a potential competitor.

Apart from making federal sites available for infrastructure, Biden’s order directs the agencies to fulfil permitting obligations expeditiously and speed up transmission development around sites.

But developers will have to foot the bill of building and running the AI infrastructure.

They are to buy “an appropriate share of domestically manufactured semiconductors” as well, the White House said.