Biden signs executive order aimed at growing AI infrastructure in the US

By SARAH PARVINI, AP Technology Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an ambitious executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to ensure the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations, such as large-scale data centers and new clean power facilities, can be built quickly and at scale in the United States.

The executive order directs federal agencies to accelerate large-scale AI infrastructure development at government sites, while imposing requirements and safeguards on the developers building on those locations. It also directs certain agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean power facilities. Those agencies will help facilitate the infrastructure’s interconnection to the electric grid and help 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 generative AI tools requires even more powerful computation to build and operate.

A report released by the Department of Energy last month estimated that the electricity needed for data centers in the U.S. tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple again by 2028, when it could consume up to 12% of the nation’s electricity.

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

“However, we cannot take our lead for granted,” the Democratic president said. “We will not let America be out-built when it comes to 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 departments of Defense and Energy will each identify at least three sites where the private sector can build AI data centers. The agencies will run “competitive solicitations” from private companies to build AI data centers on those federal sites, senior administration officials said.

Developers building on those sites will be required, among other things, to pay for the construction of those facilities and to bring sufficient clean power generation to match the full capacity needs of their data centers. Although the U.S. government will be leasing land to a company, that company would own the materials it creates there, officials said.

With less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a big question is whether the incoming administration will keep or rescind the new order. Much of the order’s focus is on reducing the bottlenecks of getting energy-hungry data centers connected to new sources of electricity including renewable sources such as wind and solar.

“It has to be a priority because otherwise you’re going to have blackouts, you’re going to have citizens or businesses being affected by this,” said computer scientist Sasha Luccioni, climate lead at the AI company Hugging Face. “Making it easier to facilitate interconnection of infrastructure to the electric grid is kind of a no brainer that would be useful for the next administration, no matter what their priorities are in terms of sustainability or climate.”

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