Trump Signs AI Action Plan and Rejects Copyright Payments

President Donald Trump signed three executive orders and released a 23-page strategy document titled Winning the Race: America's AI Action Plan during the Winning the AI Race summit in Washington, D.C. The plan prioritizes the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into government and defense sectors, the removal of infrastructure regulatory barriers, and increased international cooperation.

During the summit, Trump argued that requiring AI companies to pay for all copyrighted content used to train their models is not doable. He compared AI training to a human reading a book to gain knowledge, asserting that such learning does not violate copyright laws. Trump stated that the United States must play by the same set of rules as China, which does not require such payments, to maintain national security and competitiveness. He further pledged to remove woke Marxist lunacy from AI models.

These positions clash with a bipartisan effort in the Senate. Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal introduced the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act, which seeks to hold AI firms liable for using copyrighted works without explicit consent. While the Association of American Publishers initially supported the administration's AI Action Plan, the group emphasized the necessity of maintaining robust copyright protections.