Biden signs executive order on growing AI infrastructure in US

Associated Press

Los Angeles: President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as largescale data centers and new clean power facilities, can be built quickly and at scale in the United States. The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development at government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on the developers building on those locations.

It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centres and new clean power facilities. Those agencies will help facilitate the infrastructure's interconnection to the electric grid and help speed up the permitting process. In a statement, Biden said AI will have “profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve Americans' lives if harnessed responsibly, from helping cure disease to keeping communities safe by mitigating the effects of climate change”. “However, we cannot take our lead for granted,” the Democratic president said.

“We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water”. Under the new rules, the Departments of Defence and Energy will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centres. The agencies will run “competitive solicitations” from private companies to build AI data centres on those federal sites, senior administration officials said.

Developers building on those sites will be required, among other things, to pay for the construction of those facilities and to bring sufficient clean power generation to match the full capacity needs of their data centres. Although the US government will be leasing land to a company, that company would own the materials it creates there, officials said. Biden said the efforts are designed to accelerate the clean energy transition in a way that is “responsible and respectful to local communities” and does not add costs to the average American. Developers selected to build on government sites will be required to pay all costs of building and operating AI infrastructure so that development does not raise electricity prices for consumers, the administration said.