US President Donald Trump’s “AI Action Plan” included some unexpected support for open-source and open-weight models, despite concern from members of the administration that China is benefiting from the US’ shared knowledge.
The framework suggests that a strong American open-source AI network has “geostrategic value” because it could underpin businesses and academic research globally, becoming the dominant technology. “While the decision of whether and how to release an open or closed model is fundamentally up to the developer, the Federal government should create a supportive environment for open models,” the document said.
The Biden administration was seen as less friendly to such setups, leading companies like Meta to launch publicity campaigns promoting the benefits of open-source models. But some policymakers were also critical of Mark Zuckerberg’s company, amid reports that Chinese researchers developed military AI applications using Meta’s partially open-source Llama. The use of DeepSeek’s open-source model by American startups has also disturbed US officials.
To encourage an open AI ecosystem, the White House recommends improving the financial market for compute in a framework that could look similar to spot and forward prices for commodities. After looking like the current administration would follow Biden’s policies limiting US technology to contain China, its latest plan is now embracing a “more the merrier” approach to advancing AI on American terms.