Biden takes a big step for the future of AI with an ambitious executive order

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an ambitious decree on Tuesday artificial intelligence which aims 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.

The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate the development of large-scale AI infrastructure on government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on developers who build on those sites. It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available to AI Data Centers and new clean energy facilities. These agencies will help facilitate the interconnection of infrastructure to the electricity grid and speed up the permitting process.

While the tech industry has long relied on data centers to run online services, from email and social media to financial transactions, new AI technology behind popular chatbots and other tools generative AI requires even more powerful calculation to build and operate.

A report released last month by the Department of Energy estimates that the electricity consumption needed by data centers in the United States has tripled over the past decade and is expected to double or triple again by 2028, when which it could consume up to 12% of the country’s electricity.

In a statement, Biden said AI will have “profound national security implications and enormous potential to improve the lives of Americans if harnessed responsibly, from helping to cure diseases or to ensure the safety of communities by mitigating the effects of climate change”.

“However, we cannot take our lead for granted,” the Democratic president said. “We will not let America fall behind in 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 defense and energy ministries will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centers. Agencies will issue “requests for proposals” to private companies to build AI data centers at these federal sites, senior administration officials said.

Developers building on these sites will be required, among other things, to finance the construction of these facilities and to provide sufficient clean energy production to meet the full capacity of their data center needs. Even though the U.S. government will lease land to a company, that company will own the materials it creates there, officials said.

With less than a week until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the big question is whether the new administration will maintain or roll back the new order. The main objective of the order is to reduce bottlenecks in obtaining energy-intensive data centers connected to new sources of electricity, including renewable sources such as wind and solar.

“This has to be a priority, because otherwise you’re going to have power outages, citizens or businesses will be affected by this,” said computer scientist Sasha Luccioni, head of climate at AI company Hugging Face. “Facilitating the interconnection of infrastructure to the electricity grid is obvious and would be useful to the next administration, whatever its priorities in terms of sustainability or climate. »

Biden said the efforts aim to accelerate the transition to clean energy in a way that is “responsible and respectful of local communities” and does not add costs to the average American. Developers selected to build on government sites will have to pay all costs of building and operating the AI ​​infrastructure so that development does not increase electricity prices for consumers, the administration said .

The orders also direct the construction of AI data centers on federal sites under public labor agreements. Some sites are reserved for small and medium-sized AI companies, according to government officials.

Government agencies will also conduct a study on the effects of all AI data centers on electricity prices, and the Department of Energy will provide technical assistance to state utility commissions regarding the design electricity rates that could make it possible to connect new large customers to clean energy.

Under the order, the Interior Department will identify land it manages that is suitable for clean energy development and can accommodate data centers on government sites, administration officials said.

“The volumes of computing power and electricity required to train and operate frontier models are increasing rapidly and are expected to increase further,” said Tarun Chhabra, deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for technology and national security. “By around 2028, we predict that leading AI developers will seek to leverage data centers of up to five gigawatts to train AI models. »

Deploying AI systems at scale also requires a wider network of data centers in different parts of the country, he said.

“From a national security perspective, it’s really critical to find a way to build data centers and power infrastructure to support AI operations at the borders here in the United States,” he said. said, adding that building data centers in the United States would prevent “adversaries from accessing these powerful systems to the detriment of our military and national security.”

This type of investment will also prevent the United States from becoming dependent on other countries for access to AI tools, Chhabra said.

The executive order follows that of the Biden administration. new restrictions proposed on exports of artificial intelligence chips in more than 100 countries. The proposal has drawn concerns from chip industry executives as well as officials from the European Union and China, as well as criticism from some Republicans and Trump allies.

In contrast, tech industry groups on Tuesday praised Biden’s data center order, while some liberal groups said it did not contain sufficient environmental protections.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who warned Biden last month against rapid data center expansion, on Monday welcomed the order because it recognizes the risks that uncontrolled data center growth could pose for the electricity network and the climate.

“Taxpayers and future generations should not have to bear the costs of insatiable energy demand from tech companies making huge money from the AI ​​boom,” Whitehouse said, adding that he doubted the Trump administration implements this measure.

The Trump transition team did not respond by email to a request for comment on the order.

What’s missing in the order is how to handle water consumption AI data centers. There is growing concern in states with multiple data centers about how to balance the economic development they bring with their impact on water resources, as they use large amounts of water for cooling, said J. Alan Roberson, executive director of the Association of State Drinking. Water administrators.

“Across the country, everyone is trying to get a better idea of ​​the impact of data centers on water consumption, now and in the future,” he said.

The executive order could have required federal agencies to collect information on the amount of water used by data centers to help state and local officials make zoning decisions about permitting them, but that is not the case , he added.

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AP writers Matt O’Brien and Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.