It’s confirmed, Donald Trump will be back at the White House next January. His victory leads to important changes in the world of Tech, and in particular artificial intelligence. The opportunity for us to see what could evolve in the United States, with repercussions on a global level.
Donald Trump less interventionist on AI?
Joe Biden’s government has adopted fairly strong regulations on AI. In particular, it forces companies that develop powerful models to be accountable to the authorities for the way in which they produce these technologies and secure them. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the Department of Commerce, also establishes guidelines to help companies identify and correct potential vulnerabilities.
These measures are considered too restrictive by the Republicans and they fear that this will hamper innovation. Donald Trump therefore promised during his campaign that he will remove the measures taken by Joe Biden “from day one”. He added: “I will ban the use of AI to censor the speech of American citizens. »
Subsequently, however, it remained relatively vague. The billionaire personally believes that AI is “very dangerous” and that it will require a significant amount of energy to operate. However, experts do not really expect his government to take major measures on this issue which does not seem to be a priority.
The movement could therefore come from localized efforts at the federal state level. Techcrunch also recalls that Democratic California has adopted several dozen bills intended to secure and regulate potential abuses of AI. Tennessee, Republican, for its part approved regulations to protect voice artists from voice cloning by AI.
Export restrictions?
Donald Trump advocates a protectionist approach to trade with the introduction of massive customs duties and stricter export controls vis-à-vis the United States’ rivals, including China. Quoted by our colleagues, Hamid Ekbia, professor at Syracuse University who studies public affairs, expects this to impact the AI sector:
Global regulation of AI will suffer from the consequences of the new controls, despite circumstances calling for greater global cooperation. The political and geopolitical ramifications of this situation can be enormous, enabling more authoritarian and oppressive uses of AI across the world.
In any case, we will carefully observe the first decisions of Donald Trump and his government which could have a significant impact on this booming sector.
