White House’s “hands-off” approach to AI includes restricting “woke AI”
The Trump administration is dead set on America dominating AI, and it’s close to releasing its plan.
Axios reports that a forthcoming 20-page document will frame the administration’s “hands-off approach” to AI, clearing the way for companies to get faster permitting for AI data centers, eliminating regulatory hurdles, and “promoting innovation.”
But maybe not entirely hands-off. The Wall Street Journal reported that David Sacks, the AI and crypto czar, is pushing to make sure any AI company that receives federal dollars ensures that their AI isn’t “woke” and is “politically neutral.”
It’s not clear what the test for this might be, but to date, the Department of Defense doesn’t seem to care. It recently awarded contracts worth up to $200 million to Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.
A recent embarrassing episode with xAI’s Grok chatbot shows just how complicated it can be to try and skew the perceived politics of an AI model, after CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to allow “politically incorrect” responses resulted in the model declaring itself “MechaHitler” and spewing antisemitic posts.
But maybe not entirely hands-off. The Wall Street Journal reported that David Sacks, the AI and crypto czar, is pushing to make sure any AI company that receives federal dollars ensures that their AI isn’t “woke” and is “politically neutral.”
It’s not clear what the test for this might be, but to date, the Department of Defense doesn’t seem to care. It recently awarded contracts worth up to $200 million to Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.
A recent embarrassing episode with xAI’s Grok chatbot shows just how complicated it can be to try and skew the perceived politics of an AI model, after CEO Elon Musk’s attempt to allow “politically incorrect” responses resulted in the model declaring itself “MechaHitler” and spewing antisemitic posts.
