Climate advocates outraged at Trump administration plans to fast-track AI sector | Trump administration

The Trump administration has unveiled plans to accelerate the development of the very polluting artificial intelligence sector, arousing the indignation of climate defenders.

Deployed Wednesday, the 28-page scheme undertakes to eliminate “bureaucratic administrative formalities” and rationalize data, semiconductor manufacturing facilities and fossil combustible infrastructures.

To do this, it will dismantle certain regulations for the use of the environment and the use of land, will wrap certain rules of the Biden era for subsidies for semiconductor factories linked to climatic requirements, and seeks to establish exclusions for data centers of the national law on environmental policy and to rationalize permits under the Clean Water Act.

“We have to build and maintain a large IA infrastructure and energy to feed it. To do this, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic administrative formalities, as the administration has done since the day of the inauguration, “said the plan. “In other words, we must” build, baby, build! ” »»

Trump on Wednesday is expected to sign three decrees related to AI during an opening speech at a summit at DC. The announcement will be co-organized by Bipartisan legislators with the Hill and Valley Forum and a Podcast Business and Technology organized by four technological investors and businessmen, including Trump AI and Czar Cryptographic, David Sacks.

The AI sector already depletes land and water resources and makes an enormous number on the climate, with models of important languages powered by AI such as chatgpt taking up to 10 times more energy than regular Google research, according to an estimate of the Electric Power Research Institute. Last year, Chatgpt used more than half a million kilowatts of electricity every day, equivalent to the daily consumption of 180,000 American households.

The formation of a single AI model can lead to an emission imprint which is almost five times larger than the carbon carbon footprint of the average American car. Recent research by Food and Water Watch has also revealed that the energy demand for AI servers and data centers in the United States should increase up to 2023 to 2028, which could lead the American sector to, by 2028, consume enough water each year to fill more than 1 million Olympic swimming pools and enough electricity to supply more than 28 million American households.

“Basically, the AI agenda of President Trump is nothing more than a barely veiled invitation for the fossil fuels and company industry to increase their exploitation of our environment and our natural resources – all to the detriment of everyday people,” said Mitch Jones, CEO Food and Water Watch, a defense group of the environment.

The new plan recommends that regulators examine the laws on AI states to see if they interfere with the authority of the agency. He also indicates that federal agencies “will examine the regulatory climate of the AI of a State when making funding decisions” and “will limit funding if the regulatory plans of the State AI can hamper the efficiency of this financing or this price”.

The Republicans at the start of this year tried to promulgate a version of this by placing a moratorium on the ability of the United States to impose artificial intelligence regulations in a major Trump bill, but the provision was stripped at the last minute.

“Within the framework of this plan, the technology giants obtain dear offers while everyday Americans will see their electricity bills increase to subsidize the reduced power for massive IA data centers,” said JB Branch, a defender of great technology responsibility for the organization of defense of public consumers Citizen. “States are held hostage: either cease to protect their residents from dangerous and not tested AI products, or lose federal funding.”

As a counterweight to the new Trump plan, a large coalition of more than 90 defense groups – notably non -profit organizations on climate and environmental justice, consumer protection organizations and work defenders – has published an open letter calling for an “AI action plan for people” which prioritizes “public well -being, shared prosperity, a future and sustainable security”.

“We cannot leave the great lobbyists of technology and the great oils write the rules of AI and our economy to the detriment of our freedom and our equality, workers and the well-being of families,” wrote the coalition.

Research shows that many data centers used for AI are placed near low -income colored communities, which are already often overloaded by pollution.

“People sacrifice their health, their well-being and, too often, their future, so that others can benefit from it,” said Sharon Lewis, executive director of Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice. “We are told that these data centers are harmless, but even if they may seem that they have no risk, in reality, these gourmet and gourmet installations in pollution are just as harmful to our environment and our health.”