President Joe Biden's executive order seeks to ensure that the infrastructure necessary for advanced AI operations can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure that the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as large-scale data centers and new clean energy facilities, can be built quickly and at scale in the United States. Joined.
The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate the development of large-scale AI infrastructure at government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on developers building at those locations. It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean energy facilities. Those agencies will help facilitate the interconnection of infrastructure to the electric grid and help expedite the permitting process.
In a statement, Biden said AI will have “profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve the lives of Americans if harnessed responsibly, from helping to cure diseases to keeping communities safe by mitigating the effects of climate change”.
“However, we cannot take our leadership for granted,” the Democratic president said. “We will not allow America to fall behind in the technology that will define the future, nor must we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water.”
Under the new rules, the Defense and Energy departments will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centers. The agencies will conduct “competitive bidding” from private companies to build AI data centers at those federal sites, senior administration officials said.
Developers building on those sites will be required to, among other things, pay for the construction of those facilities and generate enough clean energy to meet the full capacity needs of their data centers. Although the U.S. government will lease the land to a company, that company will own the materials it creates there, officials said.
Biden said the efforts are designed to accelerate the transition to clean energy in a way that is “responsible and respectful of local communities” and does not add costs to average Americans. Developers selected to build on government sites will be required to pay all costs of building and operating the AI infrastructure so that the development does not increase electricity prices for consumers, the administration said.
The orders also mandate that construction of AI data centers on federal sites be done with public labor agreements. Some of the sites are reserved for small and medium-sized AI companies, according to government officials.
Government agencies will also complete a study on the effects of all AI data centers on electricity prices, and the Department of Energy will provide technical assistance to state public utility commissions regarding electricity rate designs that can support the connection of new large customers with clean energy.
As part of the order, the Interior Department will identify lands it manages that are suitable for clean energy development and can support data centers at government sites, administration officials said.