{"id":14679,"date":"2026-01-21T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T02:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=14679"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T02:15:18","slug":"white-house-tech-chief-slams-eu-ai-act-champions-trumps-approach-as-davos-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=14679","title":{"rendered":"White House tech chief slams EU AI Act, champions Trump’s approach as Davos begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Going into this week\u2019s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the White House\u2019s top science and technology adviser, Michael Kratsios, signaled some chilly conversations with European leaders may lie ahead on the topic of artificial intelligence and the way it is regulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will continue to point out to my tech minister counterparts the ways they can create a regulatory environment to allow AI to thrive,\u201d Kratsios told NBC News, \u201cto make sure they\u2019re not getting ahead of themselves with overburdening regulations, like the EU AI Act, which are an absolute disaster.\u201d For Kratsios, the Trump administration\u2019s light-touch approach to AI regulation is the winning formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been an A-B test for decades on how you lead in technology, and it\u2019s very obvious what the recipe is,\u201d said Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and one of the nation\u2019s leading artificial intelligence advisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe put out probably the most robust, most substantive vision of a pro-innovation AI strategy in the world,\u201d Kratsios said, referencing the White House\u2019s AI Action Plan released in July. \u201cEverywhere we travel, when I meet my fellow tech ministers, they\u2019re all using our language and are all talking about their own AI action plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration\u2019s roadmap to American AI dominance, the AI Action Plan is divided into three main sections \u2014 innovation, infrastructure and international diplomacy and security. The blueprint emphasizes the reduction of \u201cred tape and onerous regulation\u201d that \u201cunnecessarily hinder AI development or deployment\u201d by rolling back rules and guidance at various federal agencies, many of which were initiated by President Joe Biden\u2019s 2023 executive order on AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Kratsios might not be a household name, he wields significant influence over the nation\u2019s technological and economic future. Kratsios is a D.C. policy veteran, having overseen all research and development efforts at the Pentagon as undersecretary of defense before moving to the White House to serve as the nation\u2019s chief technology officer during the first Trump administration. A key figure in America\u2019s ongoing AI infrastructure buildout and efforts at the intersection of AI and education, Kratsios spoke to NBC News to reflect on the country\u2019s AI progress at the administration\u2019s one-year mark, and outline his designs for the months ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios, 39, cut his teeth in the world of private industry, spending much of his early career at Thiel Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Silicon Valley stalwart Peter Thiel. White House AI czar David Sacks and senior policy adviser on AI Sriram Krishnan, also longtime Silicon Valley venture capital magnates, work closely with Kratsios to shape America\u2019s AI agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eager to encourage the adoption of American AI technology at home and abroad, Kratsios does not mince words about what he sees as bungled approaches to AI policy and stifling overreaches by international bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Action Plan very definitively turned the page on AI doomerism and hostility towards AI innovation that had been the hallmark of the Biden administration,\u201d Kratsios said. \u201cThe president was very clear during the first couple days of the administration that we had to turn that page and create a plan that would ensure the U.S. leads the world in AI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios is clear that the Trump administration\u2019s vision clashes with regulatory structures that have become increasingly visible in the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Union\u2019s AI Act, which Kratsios criticized, imposes varying requirements on AI companies based on the risk posed by their products. The broadest risk evaluation and reporting requirements affect companies like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, whose powerful foundational models are most likely to present severe or \u201csystemic risks\u201d to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many countries out there that consistently speak about the importance of having an AI economy and an AI ecosystem and making sure that their citizens can actually enjoy the benefits of AI,\u201d Kratsios told NBC News. \u201cWe want to be the enabler for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following an executive order in late July, the Department of Commerce in October unveiled a core element of this agenda with a new program to turbocharge American AI exports. Kratsios views this American AI Export Program as one of his focuses for the coming months and outlined key components of the new push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios said the program will seek to offer a tailored approach to exporting hardware and software based on a specific country\u2019s AI needs. \u201cWe want to make it as easy as possible for countries around the world to buy our stack and import our stack,\u201d Kratsios said, revealing the Development Finance Corporation and Export Import Bank will provide financing mechanisms for countries to buy a piece of America\u2019s AI ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the very best chips, we have the very best models, we have the very best AI applications. And we want to deliver those solutions to countries around the world so that they can actually benefit from them,\u201d said Kratsios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a growing rivalry over global AI dominance, some observers see China as having an edge in diffusing its AI products to other countries. Kratsios sees the Export Program as a key mechanism to entice other countries to use American technology in their pursuit of sovereign AI systems. Kratsios said more details about the program will be announced at February\u2019s AI Impact Summit in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios has long been interested in AI, having led the establishment of the American AI Initiative during Trump\u2019s first administration. Between the two Trump administrations, Kratsios worked in a leadership position at Scale AI, a top data annotation company that received a $14.3 billion investment from Meta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios places the federal government\u2019s \u201cGenesis Mission\u201d effort to apply AI to critical scientific problems, announced in November, at the heart of the administration\u2019s push for AI-enabled innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGenesis Mission is the largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo mission towards a scientific endeavor,\u201d Kratsios said, noting the effort\u2019s goal of harnessing the federal government\u2019s vast resources and stores of scientific data for AI. \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen an incredible amount of demand and enthusiasm from a lot of our partners and allies around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the coming year, Kratsios said Americans can expect to see the creation of a separate \u201cclosed AI platform\u201d for the initiative, as Department of Energy official Dar\u00edo Gil builds out the Genesis Mission\u2019s physical infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the crown jewel of the Genesis Mission, Kratsios says he champions the role of the federal government in encouraging scientific discovery, rejecting any perceived incongruity between the administration\u2019s approach to America\u2019s scientific funding and its embrace of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe as a scientific enterprise today spend almost a trillion dollars per year in research and development, and the vast majority of that, around 70%, is done by the private sector,\u201d Kratsios said. \u201cIf one myopically looks singularly at federal research and development dollars and doesn\u2019t think they\u2019re part of a larger ecosystem, then they\u2019re obviously not going to reap the benefits the American people deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019I\u2019m very proud, and this was even in the president\u2019s funding request to Congress, that the areas that are most important to the national agenda, like AI and quantum, were preserved and even plussed up in the budget,\u201d Kratsios said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some computing research advocates worry that cuts to the larger scientific R&D ecosystem could harm AI innovation, even if AI research funding is held steady. Last week, a Senate committee working on upcoming federal spending bills pushed back on President Trump\u2019s proposed 22% cut to scientific funding and instead floated a 4% reduction in science financing compared to 2025 spending levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate\u2019s counterproposal includes a small increase in funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which houses critical federal efforts to evaluate and assess how leading AI models function, an effort Kratsios said \u201ccan be a tremendous unlock to private sector adoption of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s budget requests a $325 million reduction from NIST\u2019s $1.5 billion spending in 2025, citing NIST\u2019s support for \u201ca radical climate agenda,\u201d though it is unclear if these budget cuts would impact NIST\u2019s work on AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kratsios highlighted a recent push to create a new federal framework for AI policy as another key AI win for the private sector and smaller American AI companies, though many advocates of AI oversight remain skeptical that a federal law will sufficiently replace existing state laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreating a patchwork of AI laws where 50 different states all have different goals is ultimately going to hurt little tech and startups more than anyone else,\u201d Kratsios said, echoing a refrain from Silicon Valley venture capitalists like Marc Andreesen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump\u2019s executive order from December charged Kratsios, alongside AI czar David Sacks, with preparing legislative recommendations for \u201ca uniform Federal policy framework\u201d that overrides state laws going against the administration\u2019s AI goals. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be working very hard over the next year on that framework,\u201d Kratsios said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going into this week\u2019s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the White House\u2019s top science and technology adviser, Michael Kratsios, signaled some chilly conversations with European leaders may lie ahead on the topic of artificial intelligence and the way it is regulated. \u201cI will continue to point out to my tech minister counterparts the ways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":14680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1639,3925,2117],"class_list":["post-14679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-ai","tag-kratsios","tag-white"],"yoast_head":"\nWhite House tech chief slams EU AI Act, champions Trump's approach as Davos begins - 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