Donald Trump has declared that the United States is going to “win the AI race”, leaving Britain to prove it can keep up.
Speaking at the ‘winning AI race’ summit, the US president said: “America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I’m here today to declare that America is going to win it”.
His newly announced AI Action Plan outlines 90 recommendations designed to turbocharge AI innovation and keep China at bay, while rolling back environmental protections, loosening federal red tape, and scrapping what Trump described as “ideological dogmas” from government-funded models.
Meanwhile, the UK government launched its own AI Opportunities Action Plan in January, pledging to create data centre “growth zones”, supercharge compute infrastructure, and deploy AI across public services like the NHS.
But as Trump woos Big Tech with deregulation and export ambitions, the contrast in tone reveals cracks in Starmer’s AI push.
Red tape vs rocket fuel
Trump’s plan, unveiled in a room filled with Silicon Valley darlings like Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Palantir’s Shyam Sankar, is both pro-business and anti-regulation.
“America must once again be a country where innovators are rewarded with a green light, not strangled with red tape”, Trump announced, according to the Guardian.
The strategy includes three executive orders.
One is aimed at expediting data centre development by removing environmental constraints, whilst another targeted so-called ‘woke’ AI by requiring neutrality in federally funded systems.
The third focused on expanding AI exports abroad.
David Sacks, Trump’s White House tech adviser and crypto czar, said: “We believe we are in an AI race, and we want the US to win that race”.
Sacks added that AI must be free to learn like humans. “Without data”, he continued, “we will lose the race”.
Meanwhile, the UK has faced exponential criticism for its indecision on copyright and training data – an issue that has driven firms like Stability AI to train their models overseas.
Matt Clifford, the UK government’s former AI adviser, previously warned that the country lacks the computing power to compete at scale.
Labour’s plan, announced by Starmer, promised to fix that, pledging a 20-fold increase in computing capacity by 2030, and backing a sovereign AI data centre in Essex.
Big Tech and lobbying muscle
Trump’s relationship with Big Tech is also evolving, Tech firms like Microsoft, Nvidia, Meta and Anthriopic welcomed the Action Plan.
Nvidia has promised $500bn in US AI infrastructure investment over the next four years.
At the same time, US firms are throwing their weight behind lobbying efforts.
A recent report by watchdog group Issue One revealed the top eight US tech firms have spent a combined $36m on lobbying this year so far – roughly $320,000 for every day Congress has been in session.
Yet, Britain’s Ai ambitions hinge more heavily on public-private collaboration and job creation.
Labour’s plan includes £14bn in private sector commitments from firms like Vantage and Nscale, and pledged to create over 13,000 jobs.
IP headaches and global rivals
A point which the US has taken a clearer stance on is copyright, with Trump controversially rejecting the idea that training AI models on public data should require licensing agreements.
“We’re not going to have a successful programme if every input requires negotiating a contract”, Trump said.
He argued that just as humans learn from the world around them, so too should AI.
Whilst this raises questions and garners critique from the creative industry, in the UK, where policymakers continue to consult on how copyright laws should apply to AI training, the lack of clarity has been costly.
Getty Images recently dropped parts of its case against Stability AI after it emerged the company’s models were trained outside UK jurisdiction.
An AI arms race
While the UK focuses on safe deployment and public sector productivity, the US strategy appears far more aggressive.
Trump has also hinted at ditching the H-18 visa lottery – a system for US skilled workers – favouring a weighted system that would change global talent flows.
Critics, however, warn the US plan could be a giveaway to Big Tech. Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, said: “The White House AI Action Plan was written by and for tech billionaires, and will not serve the interests of the broader public”.
Former Biden officials also raised concerns. “Accelerating innovation is essential, but dismantling responsible guardrails risks turning America’s AI revolution into a reckless gamble”, said Jim Secreto, former deputy chief of staff to commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.