Amazon Web Services data center is seen on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Boardman, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
The order will "ensure that the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations—including large-scale data centers and new clean power infrastructure—can be built with speed and scale here in the United States," Biden said, adding, "These efforts are designed to accelerate the clean energy transition in a way that is responsible and respectful to local communities, and in a way that does not impose any new costs on American families."
"Building AI infrastructure in the United States is a national security imperative," Biden said. "As AI’s capabilities grow, so do its implications for Americans’ safety and security. Domestic data centers for training and operating powerful AI models will help the United States facilitate AI’s safe and secure development, harness AI in service of national security, and prevent adversaries from accessing powerful systems to the detriment of our military and national security."
"It will also help prevent America from growing dependent on other countries to access powerful AI tools," he added.
Vice President Harris, who attended the first-ever global AI summit hosted in London in November 2023, said in a statement on Tuesday the "significant electrical power needs of large-scale AI operations also present a new opportunity for advancing American leadership in clean-energy technology, which will power our future economy." "By activating the full force of the federal government to speed up and scale AI operations here in the United States, we are securing our global leadership on AI, which will have a profound impact on our economy, society, and national security for generations to come," she added.
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.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 13, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Deploying AI systems at scale also requires a broader network of data centers across different parts of the country, he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The executive order comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s proposed new restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence chips, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries. The Biden White House announced its "final rule" on AI diffusion Monday, receiving blow-back from chip industry executives as well as officials from the European Union over export restrictions that would affect 120 countries.
"We're trying to strike the right balance between ensuring that the frontier of AI stays in the United States of America and our close allies, while also ensuring that the rest of the world can benefit from AI and get the hardware that they need to power AI applications going forward," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House Monday. "We think this is, in a bipartisan spirit, the way to best preserve and protect America's lead when it comes to artificial intelligence."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-signs-second-ai-action-during-final-week-in-office-with-executive-order-fast-tracking-us-infrastructure