Sen. Budd, Commerce Committee Colleagues Highlight Need to Bolster U.S. leadership in AI Innovation

Hearing with OSTP Director Kratsios outlines Trump administration's AI strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At yesterday's Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness hearing titled "AI've Got a Plan: America's AI Action Plan," Sen. Budd led his Senate Republican colleagues in discussing the Trump administration's "AI Action Plan" with testimony from Michael Kratsios, Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Below are some highlights from today's hearing, which can be viewed in its entirety HERE.

Sen. Budd Receives Update on the Implementation of Trump's AI Action Plan

Sen. Budd: "Now, the AI Action Plan contains a handful of directives for various government agencies, so can you provide a brief update on how implementation of that's going along?"

Mr. Kratsios: "…there's been a significant amount of progress at the Commerce Department on the AI export package executive order…We had the second meeting of our AI Education Task Force that was chaired by the first lady just last week…And I think from our office, we're on the hook to do an RFI relating to identifying regulations that may be hindering the progress of AI, and that should be coming out very shortly."

Sen. Budd Highlights the Administration's Strategy for Exporting the American AI Stack

Sen. Budd: "...in your opening testimony, you mentioned the president's executive order in promoting the export of the American AI technology stack. So unpack this a bit for us if you would, tell us what makes up that tech stack and how we can encourage other nations to adopt it."

Mr. Kratsios: "...there's three main components of it, it's essentially the chips, the algorithms, and then the applications themselves…the hope is that we can flesh out, or the Commerce Department will be fleshing out in the RFP more details around what we're looking for and we'll be able to bring together folks from the entire technology community to work on it. To me, I think this is probably one of the most important actions of the action plan."

Sen. Budd Raises Administration's Concerns if U.S. AI Stack is Not Adopted Globally

Sen. Budd: "We see the optimistic vision in this AI plan, but if we're not adopted as the U.S. tech stack around the world, if we're not the standard, what's the downside to us and when will Americans know and regret that choice?"

Mr. Kratsios: "...the threat we face is that if we aren't the standard around the world, those models, those applications, we fine-tuned on adversary models, running on adversary chips, and that's not a long term solution for the U.S."

Chairman Cruz Secures Backing for AI Regulatory Sandboxes from Director Kratsios

Chairman Cruz: "...as part of the legislative framework that I've released, I'm going to introduce the SANDBOX Act, which establishes an AI sandbox program within OSTP. Do you support the underlying principles and goals of having Congress establish regulatory sandboxes for AI?"

Mr. Kratsios: "Yes, the AI Action Plan very definitively promotes the idea of using sandboxes. Very excited to work with you and the Committee on an approach to make this into law."

Chairman Cruz Affirms the Administration's Support for Federal Preemption of State Laws that Cripple AI Development

Chairman Cruz: "Why does the Administration believe that state AI laws and regulations such as those in California and Colorado pose a threat to AI deployment and innovation in the United States? And does the Administration support preemption of those laws?"

Mr. Kratsios: "A patchwork of state regulations is anti-innovation. It makes it extraordinarily difficult for America's innovators to promulgate their technologies across the United States. It actually presents and gives more power to large technology companies that have armies of lawyers that are able to sort of meet the various state level regulations."

Sen. Schmitt Emphasizes Source Bias in Large Language AI Models

Sen. Schmitt: "I wanted to sort of focus at least the questions on large language models, which of course are only as good as the data that they're trained on. Source bias in Google search results was a major issue leading up to the 2024 election. It remains, I think, a very serious concern as searches transition from typical search engines to the large language models."

Mr. Kratsios: "Yes, this was a big concern of the White House and the president. And that is why the same day the report was released, the president signed an executive order around Woke AI…most of the large language model builders are beyond excited to try to provide their models for federal use. So I think we have a lot of leverage here to try to create an environment where these models really are true seeking and accurate."

Sen. Moreno Discusses Importance of Semiconductor Manufacturing & Energy Generation for AI Deployment

Sen. Moreno: "...we have to make certain that we're dominating the world in chips. That's critically important that we support American-made, American-designed chips."

Mr. Kratsios: "Yes. And I think that being able to not only design them here in the United States but also fabricate them is very important. The level above that is the models themselves. So we need to lead the world in large language models, which we do. And above that is the applications, and those combined create the stack, which is so important."

Sen. Moreno: "We need sound energy policy where we have the most reliable, affordable and abundant energy. That's really important and that that be co-located as much as humanly possible when we're building out these AI data centers. Would you agree?"

Mr. Kratsios: "Yes. In the president's remarks in the speech that he gave at the Action Summit, he talked about the value even having behind-the-meter power to support some of these data center build-outs. So being able to co-locate that is very important."

Sen. Young Questions Risks of Patchwork Regulations on American Competitiveness

Sen. Young: "Can you speak to the risks associated with continuing to subject our AI innovators to a fragmented series of rules, including those enforced by other countries as well as states here at home?"

Mr. Kratsios: "I think creating standards at the U.S. level that are prominent globally is very important. In the weekend after the AI Action Plan was released, the PRC held their large AI conference in Shanghai. And one of the main thrusts of their own AI Action Plan they released in response to ours was a desire to create a global entity, an AI entity in Shanghai that would then promulgate global rules around AI for the world. And this is an example of why it's so important for the U.S. to be the leader in the way that we provide standards around AI, particularly around model evaluation and standard setting."

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