The United States unveil its plan to dominate the world in AI | Press review n°16
I selected important news on artificial intelligence during the week of July 21 to 27, 2025. Here's my commentary.
Welcome to the sixteenth press review of Artificial reality. This week I focused on the “AI Action Plan” of the United States, on the CEO of OpenAI who admitted that AI increases surveillance and on the rise of tech authoritarianism set up by some Silicon Valley billionaires. Have a good read!
📰 Read
The United States unveil its plan to dominate the world in AI
In a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, the president of the United States Donald Trump unveiled the plan of his administration to “win the artificial intelligence race” and thus ensure the world dominance of his country in this domain, Le Temps reports.
The White House published a 23 page document titled “Winning the Race. America’s AI Action Plan” to give details about this ambition, which primarily involves deregulating this sector. The introduction is signed by Donald Trump: “As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance. To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation.”
Trump unveils 'AI action plan' for US dominance in artificial intelligence race
The strategy presented in this plan is based on three pillars: accelerate AI Innovation, build American AI infrastructure and lead in international AI diplomacy and security.
The White House will take 90 measures in the coming months to implement this project. On Wednesday, the president already signed three executive orders in line with this direction, The New York Times writes. The first one bars the federal government from buying AI systems it considers ideologically biased. The second will speed up the permitting process for major AI infrastructure projects. The third focuses on promoting the export of US AI products around the world.
Against “woke” AI
The United States government therefore no longer has the right to purchase AI programs considered to have “woke” biases and will only procure language models which are “truthful” and prioritize “objectivity” instead of “manipulating responses in favor of ideological dogmas such as diversity, equity and inclusion,” The Verge quotes.
“The real situation here is obvious,” according to the tech media. “The Trump administration is using government funds to pressure AI companies into parroting Trumpian talking points — probably not just in specialized government products, but in chatbots that companies and ordinary people use.” This perspective is shared by the tech journalists of Le Temps, who assert that the president wants to force the AI companies to adopt his ideological line.
In other words, this executive order from Donald Trump looks like an attempt to censor the political positions he doesn’t agree with. It is an anti-democratic and authoritarian drift.
“The world’s most dangerous weapons”
In an analysis published by The New York Times, journalist David E. Sanger emphasizes the fact that the Trump administration worries more about woke-ism than “the world’s most dangerous weapons” that can be developed with artificial intelligence, including chemical and biological weapons made with easily-acquired ingredients.
He reports that the major risks associated with AI are only mentioned on the second-to-last page of the plan presented on Wednesday, which states that “the most powerful AI systems may pose novel national security risks in the near future in areas such as cyberattacks and the development of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosives weapons, as well as novel security vulnerabilities.”
The Trump administration didn’t present safety measures to address these risks, which is surprising given that these AI systems are being used by more and more people and organizations, including potential terrorist groups and other armed militias.
Instead of exercising caution, the US government chose to deregulate massively this sector to accelerate its development and extensive use in order to stay at the top of the race, and ahead of China especially. This approach also applies to the Armed Forces, which are encouraged to adopt AI tools “aggressively,” despite the fact that this technology still makes frequent mistakes such as hallucinations.
A tool for surveillance and control
Journalist Brian Merchant, founder of the media Blood in the Machine, takes issue with this “AI Action Plan”: “AI dominance promises power. It promises technology that can surveil, automate, bring workers to heel, and create cheap and voluminous propaganda. Anyone and everyone who’s bullish on AI should ask themselves why it is that the AI industry, in its current formation, is so attractive to, willing to partner with, and such a natural fit for a regime that grows more authoritarian by the day,” he writes in a commentary.
He adds that the plan presented on Wednesday in Washington shows a further coherence of Silicon Valley and the federal government into a surveillance state where AI is deployed wherever possible. According to him, the AI ambitions of the White House are above all a blueprint for consolidated control, by sidelining democracy in favor of automation technologies.
Seven important news this week
Border Patrol Wants Advanced AI to Spy on American Cities (The Intercept)
ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship (The Atlantic)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is right and very wrong about AI-faked voices (The Washington Post)
Amazon buys Bee AI wearable that listens to everything you say (The Verge)
How big tech is force-feeding us AI (Blood in the Machine)
Proton is launching a privacy-focused AI chatbot (The Verge)
Meta snubs the EU’s voluntary AI guidelines (The Verge)
Read the other articles of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🎥 Watch
AI increases surveillance
During an interview with podcaster Theo Von, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that artificial intelligence increases mass surveillance.
“I am worried that the more AI in the world we have, the more surveillance the world is gonna want. Because the tool is so powerful, the government will say like ‘How do we know people aren’t using it to make bombs or bioweapons?’ and the response will be ‘More surveillance’. And I’m very afraid of that,” claims the co-creator of ChatGPT.
According to him, “we really have to defend rights to privacy” but he considers acceptable to compromise some privacy for collective safety. However, he adds that “history is that the government takes that way too far” and says he’s “really nervous about that.”
He specifies that there is still no legal framework to protect the confidentiality of the conversations with ChatGPT and that OpenAI may be required to transmit them to the government in certain conditions, for example in the case of a lawsuit.
Also read: Sam Altman warns there’s no legal confidentiality when using ChatGPT as a therapist (TechCrunch)
The segments I mentioned start at 1:09:37 and 30:50.
Sam Altman | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
Seven important videos this week
How AI is the New Empire (Uncivilized)
Microsoft Workers Rebel, Refuse To Work With IDF (Breaking Points)
ICE Is Secretly Tracking Millions of Americans (Taylor Lorenz)
Why we can’t stop doxxing people for fun (Taylor Lorenz)
Real or AI? The Internet Is Now Impossible to Trust (Vanessa Wingårdh)
How AI Could Quietly Control the Minds of Billions (Rich Roll)
Demis Hassabis: Future of AI, Simulating Reality, Physics and Video Games (Lex Fridman)
Watch the other videos of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🔈 Listen
The rise of tech authoritarianism
In the Decoder podcast, CNBC journalist Jon Fortt interviews Gil Duran, founder of the media The Nerd Reich.
They talk about the influence of tech money on US politics and society at large. According to Gil Duran, some Silicon Valley billionaires are weakening democracy in the United States by establishing a technological authoritarianism.
“In a nutshell, you have a group of super rich elites with a very apocalyptic vision of where society and the world are headed, and they are rushing ahead with what they think is a solution. A solution that, by the way, will also put a crown on their heads.”
- Gil Duran
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Have a good week,
Arnaud
