President Trump came into the White House overturning dozens of actions taken by his predecessor.
But he found at least one last-minute Joe Biden measure that he actually wants to keep: an executive order that designates more federal land for AI data centers.
"I'd like to see federal lands opened up for data centers. I think they're going to be very important," Trump said, telling reporters it sounds like something he would support.
It's a rare bit of common ground between the two administrations, signaling the growing importance of artificial intelligence. Biden called it the "most consequential technology of our time" in his farewell address.
Trump signed a new executive order on Thursday that will kick off development of an action plan to "sustain and enhance America's AI dominance." He was flanked by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur and podcaster whom Trump has named as his AI 'czar.'
Earlier this week, Trump invited the CEOs from OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle to the White House to announce what they said could eventually be a $500 billion investment in AI data centers in the United States – a project they call Stargate.
Work on the project was well underway in Texas before Trump took office – but the business leaders were eager to give Trump credit for announcing the investment.
"This monumental undertaking is a resounding declaration of confidence in America's potential under a new president," Trump said. "We want to keep it in this country. China is a competitor and others are competitors… we have to get this stuff built."
But Trump doesn't love all of Biden's work on AI
That doesn't mean Trump is taking up all of Biden's work on AI priorities. On Day 1, Trump repealed Biden's first AI executive order from October 2023, a sweeping measure that provided some regulation on AI development and testing, and touched on issues of equity and discrimination in the technology.
Alondra Nelson – who worked on AI policy under the Biden administration and now serves as a fellow at the Center for American Progress – says that decision was short-sighted. She's hoping for more clarity on the overall vision on AI from the new White House.
"It seems like we're struggling in the early days of the Trump administration to get to a place where we can think about the AI ecosystem on a chess board and the larger strategy," Nelson said.
The Trump administration is expected to be more hands-off with regulation of AI, said John Villasenor of UCLA's Institute for Technology, Law and Policy – but he said it's still in its early days.
Villasenor expects the Trump administration's approach on AI to differ from what he called a "fear-based" narrative from the Biden White House, which focused on the risks and preventing negative outcomes from the technology, similar to how European nations are approaching AI.
There's an added element of billionaire drama
In the meantime, there's already been conflict over the one AI-related announcement that Trump did make.
On Tuesday, after the tech CEOs trumpeted their investment, Trump adviser Elon Musk criticized the announcement. Musk, the richest man in the world, owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X.
"They don't actually have the money," Musk posted on x.com. "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot back on the platform saying that was wrong.
On Thursday, Trump shrugged off the dispute, explaining that Musk and Altman just don't get along. "I have certain hatreds of people, too," Trump said.
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