Inside America’s AI Action Plan 2025: The 24-Page Playbook Explained for Global Readers

July 2025 • The White House • 24 pages • Plain-language guide

Table of Contents

1. Why you should care
2. The big picture in one minute
3. Pillar I – Speeding up AI innovation
4. Pillar II – Building the physical backbone
5. Pillar III – Winning the global AI diplomacy race
6. Twelve real-world questions (FAQ)
7. How individuals and businesses can act today
8. One-page checklist for the next 90 days

1. Why you should care

Artificial intelligence is no longer a research curiosity—it is the next general-purpose technology that will decide who writes the rules for the economy, national security, and daily life for decades.
The United States Government has released a 24-page plan that spells out, in plain policy language, how it intends to stay ahead.
This article keeps every technical detail and policy reference from the original document but translates it into everyday English for college-educated readers worldwide.

2. The big picture in one minute

3. Pillar I – Speeding up AI innovation

3.1 Remove rules that slow companies down

• Already done: President Trump rescinded Executive Order 14110 (the Biden-era AI order) on Day 1.
• Next steps (all deadlines inside 2025):

  • The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) will ask the public which federal rules still block AI adoption.
  • The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will rewrite or repeal any regulations that are “unnecessary burdens.”
  • States with heavy AI restrictions could see their federal AI funding reduced.

3.2 Keep AI free of ideological bias

• NIST will update the AI Risk Management Framework to remove references to misinformation, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion quotas, or climate-change policy.
• Federal buyers must only purchase frontier large-language models that are “objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”

3.3 Encourage open-source and open-weight models

Open models let startups, governments, and academics run code on their own machines instead of relying on a single vendor.

3.4 Boost adoption in slow-moving sectors

• Regulatory sandboxes – safe spaces where hospitals, energy firms, or farms can test AI tools without fear of breaking rules.
• AI Centers of Excellence – one-stop offices inside agencies such as the FDA and SEC to guide pilots and share results.
• Joint DoD–Intelligence Community reviews – twice-yearly scorecards that compare how fast the U.S., its allies, and its rivals are adopting AI inside their defense and intelligence agencies.

3.5 Help American workers thrive

Two executive orders already signed in April 2025 spell out the plan:

Tax note: Section 132 of the Internal Revenue Code now allows employers to reimburse AI training costs tax-free—watch for your HR department to roll out new course catalogs.

3.6 Next-generation manufacturing

• Who funds it: DoD, DoE, NSF, DOC, and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
• What they buy: robotics, drones, autonomous systems, and any hardware that benefits from AI-designed chips.
• How to apply: check grants.gov for SBIR topics labeled “AI-enabled manufacturing.”

4. Pillar II – Building the physical backbone

4.1 Faster permits for data centers and chip fabs

The White House argues that America’s environmental review system has not kept pace with AI demand.

Security clause: Any project on federal land must use only American-made or trusted-ally technology stacks—no adversary ICTS (information and communications technology or services).

4.2 Power grid that keeps up

AI workloads could double U.S. electricity demand by 2030. The plan proposes a three-step grid strategy:

1. Stabilize today – keep existing plants online, use AI to predict peak demand, and unlock emergency backup power.
2. Optimize existing lines – advanced conductors and AI grid management to move more electrons on the same wires.
3. Add new, dispatchable power – prioritize permits for enhanced geothermal, advanced nuclear fission, and fusion pilots.

4.3 Restore U.S. semiconductor manufacturing

• CHIPS Program Office refocus – strip away non-technical requirements such as DEI mandates; judge every grant on ROI for taxpayers.
• AI inside the fab – require grantees to integrate AI process-control tools to boost yield and cut time-to-market.

4.4 High-security data centers for defense and intelligence

• New technical standard – DOD, ODNI, and NIST will publish a “classified-grade” data-center playbook (cooling, power, cyber hardening, physical security).
• Scalable classified compute – every defense and intel agency must have access to secure cloud slices that can scale from pilot to production.

4.5 Skilled workforce for physical infrastructure

• National initiative – DOL and DOC will list priority occupations (electricians, advanced HVAC, chip-fab technicians).
• Industry-driven training – employers co-design curricula; graduates are pre-approved for hiring.
• Early pipeline – middle-school exposure, high-school pre-apprenticeships, and community-college credits that transfer directly into registered apprenticeships.

5. Pillar III – Winning the global AI diplomacy race

5.1 Export the full American AI stack

• Hardware – advanced GPUs, custom ASICs, networking gear.
• Models & software – open-weights when possible, closed enterprise versions when security demands.
• Standards – NIST-led benchmarks become the default for any country that signs an AI alliance memorandum.
• Mechanism – Commerce Department collects industry consortia proposals; State, EXIM Bank, and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation finance the deals under strict security terms.

5.2 Counter Chinese influence in global rule-making

• Forums watched: UN, OECD, G7, G20, ITU, ICANN.
• Tactics: U.S. delegations will propose innovation-friendly language and call out attempts to embed authoritarian surveillance standards.

5.3 Tighten export controls on advanced compute

• Hardware geofencing: new chips will carry location-verification firmware; Commerce will monitor resales.
• Global chip cops: attach export-control officers to high-risk countries and expand end-use checks.

5.4 Plug semiconductor manufacturing loopholes

• Current gap: controls cover whole lithography tools but not key sub-components.
• Fix: Commerce will draft new rules for subsystems, chemicals, and metrology gear.

5.5 Align protection measures with allies

• Plurilateral controls: small groups of trusted countries agree on identical restrictions faster than large multilateral treaties.
• Backfill deterrence: any ally that undercuts U.S. controls could face Foreign Direct Product Rule or secondary tariffs.

5.6 Evaluate frontier-model national-security risks

• Scope: cyber operations, CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosives) design, autonomous weapons.
• Process: CAISI at NIST plus DoD and the Intelligence Community run red-team evaluations on the largest private models; results feed into classified briefings.

5.7 Invest in biosecurity

• Screening mandate: every federally funded lab must buy DNA or RNA synthesis only from providers that verify customer identity and screen sequences.
• Shared blacklist: real-time database of suspicious orders accessible to synthesis providers worldwide.

6. Twelve real-world questions (FAQ)

7. How individuals and businesses can act today

8. One-page checklist for the next 90 days

1. Read the original PDF (24 pages, free).
2. Pick one pillar that matches your job:

   • Innovator → focus on NAIRR and regulatory sandboxes.
   • Builder → track data-center and grid RFIs.
   • Policy → watch Commerce export-control dockets.
3. Join the mailing list of either NIST (CAISI) or the CHIPS Program Office for updates.
4. Apply for at least one open funding or training opportunity before the fiscal year closes.
5. Share this checklist with a colleague—open collaboration is the spirit of the plan.

The future of AI is not predetermined. According to the White House, “the race is America’s to win—but only if we build, innovate, and lead together.”