In the cacophony created by tariffs and Trump, a singular announcement by the US did not get even a fraction of the attention it deserves. The advance warning was in January, when Donald Trump penned his illegible scrawl on Executive Order 14179— Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI, which overturned Joe Biden’s cautious AI stance.
Six months later on July 23, he followed it up with the main course by unveiling the AI Action Plan that outlined over 90 policy actions, heralding a no holds barred, full-throttle embrace of AI adventurism. It is a vision that prioritises computing power, private-sector leadership, and geopolitical dominance over the previous focus on ethical risks, AI safety, and algorithmic fairness.
In one fell stroke, the largest AI superpower has pivoted from caution to acceleration, replacing Biden-era guardrails with an innovation-first doctrine.
It rests on three pillars: accelerating innovation, largely through deregulation; building national infrastructure, by streamlining permissions for data centres and AI research; and projecting US tech power globally, through export promotion and tighter control on rivals.
The announcement was accompanied by three executive orders. One of them was against ‘woke AI’, making the battle explicitly cultural; while the other slashed data centre red tape; and the third boosted exports of the American AI stack globally, pointing towards a strategy to create a global standard.
THE IMPACT
The explosion of generative AI and ChatGPT had sparked a holy war between AI Boomers, who wanted unfettered expansion of AI, and the Doomers, who urged a careful, slower approach. With this order, it seems the former has scored a decisive victory.
But this preference for breakneck speed has left many wondering: Where are the brakes? Even as there is something to be said for quickly building a technology which could have massive benefits for humanity across healthcare, education and climate, there is lots to worry about here.
Yuval Noah Harari recently spoke about the trust paradox, where the AI superpowers do not trust one another and are racing to develop a powerful super intelligence before the other does, but are good to trust the AI superintelligence.
In the near term, this US move shifts AI’s focus from how it affects society and humanity, to how it can dominate markets, create shareholder value, and pit one nation against another.
There is an explicit political aim to create bias, with its ‘ideological neutrality’ principle, and the US states are disincentivised to create their own guardrails with the threat to hold funds.
Moving fast and breaking things is back in fashion.
LESSONS FOR THE WORLD
The AI Action Plan is a tectonic event, and its reverberations will be spread from its Washington epicentre not only to Silicon Valley, but beyond to the rest of the world.
The implications for India will be particularly interesting, not only as an emerging AI power but as a Global South leader, and the host of the next big global AI gathering – the AI Impact Summit in February 2026.
These new policies might turbocharge Big TechAI development and their stock prices and accelerate startup and venture activity along with unbridled AI infrastructure enhancement.
However, the absence of regulatory guardrails could also expose society to increased misinformation, algorithmic harms and uncheckedcommercial surveillance. There is a very real risk that this economic acceleration could outpace ethical oversight, inviting public backlash.
It would also put the spotlight on Europe. There will be pressure on regulators to loosen up, with European startups threatening to decamp to the US.
But then this is also a real, long-term opportunity for the EU to be the custodian of ‘trustworthy AI’.
China and its AI companies could be winners here. Countering the US’ unilateral stance, China has started taking the position of AI inclusivity, by pushing open source AI models and announcing a global Shanghai Initiative to form a World AI Cooperation Organisation.
DeepSeek and other models have already demonOrganisation. DeepSeek a models ready demonstrated that it is catching up on AI leadership with the US, and its open source, inclusive stance could win over more allies. However, the statist, centralised control exerted by the Chinese Communist Party, with a focus on surveillance and control will be a deterrent for many.
For the rest of the world, particularly in the Global South, this divergence presents a dilemma on who to follow. It is here that there is a unique opportunity for India, to reject this binary choice, balance ambition with caution, and carve out a ‘third way’ that emphasises ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure and co-created governance.
India has many advantages here: the world’s largest democ- racy and a leader of the Global South, a strong tech ecosystem, and a much admired model in its Digital Public Infrastructure ( DPI), which has effectively balanced innovation and social equity.
I have written about this third way, what I call coined ‘JanAI’, where India leads with a DPI-like initiative to make AI and its applications a public good in India. Many countries are keen to emulate the DPI initiative; they will likely flock to a similar AI initiative leadership.
It is also an opportune coincidence that India is hosting the AI Impact Summit in 2026, the largest such gathering of AI leaders.
To emerge as a third pole, however, India must clarify its own AI stance, create a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, and make AI a ‘national mission’ as it did with the Green Revolution, population control, and, indeed, the DPI/DPG initiative.
Focusing on AI for Good and AI for All, with ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure, universal AI literacy and co-created governance with industry, academia and civil society will help it carve out this elusive ‘middle path’ and give it a legitimate platform to lead the rest of the world.
In technology, it is often said the US innovates, Europe regulates, China replicates, and, often, India procrastinates.
However, the game has changed. Trump’s AI policy may indeed propel the US into a dominant position, but there it could be at a great social cost. As AI becomes the foundational infrastructure of this century, the rules we write today will shape everything from elections to employment to existential risk.
India, with its demographic scale, digital backbone and convening power in 2026, has a once-in-a-generation chance to help the world write those rules—not in Washington, Shanghai or Brussels, but in New Delhi.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com)
Six months later on July 23, he followed it up with the main course by unveiling the AI Action Plan that outlined over 90 policy actions, heralding a no holds barred, full-throttle embrace of AI adventurism. It is a vision that prioritises computing power, private-sector leadership, and geopolitical dominance over the previous focus on ethical risks, AI safety, and algorithmic fairness.
In one fell stroke, the largest AI superpower has pivoted from caution to acceleration, replacing Biden-era guardrails with an innovation-first doctrine.
It rests on three pillars: accelerating innovation, largely through deregulation; building national infrastructure, by streamlining permissions for data centres and AI research; and projecting US tech power globally, through export promotion and tighter control on rivals.
The announcement was accompanied by three executive orders. One of them was against ‘woke AI’, making the battle explicitly cultural; while the other slashed data centre red tape; and the third boosted exports of the American AI stack globally, pointing towards a strategy to create a global standard.
THE IMPACT
The explosion of generative AI and ChatGPT had sparked a holy war between AI Boomers, who wanted unfettered expansion of AI, and the Doomers, who urged a careful, slower approach. With this order, it seems the former has scored a decisive victory.
But this preference for breakneck speed has left many wondering: Where are the brakes? Even as there is something to be said for quickly building a technology which could have massive benefits for humanity across healthcare, education and climate, there is lots to worry about here.
Yuval Noah Harari recently spoke about the trust paradox, where the AI superpowers do not trust one another and are racing to develop a powerful super intelligence before the other does, but are good to trust the AI superintelligence.
In the near term, this US move shifts AI’s focus from how it affects society and humanity, to how it can dominate markets, create shareholder value, and pit one nation against another.
There is an explicit political aim to create bias, with its ‘ideological neutrality’ principle, and the US states are disincentivised to create their own guardrails with the threat to hold funds.
Moving fast and breaking things is back in fashion.
LESSONS FOR THE WORLD
The AI Action Plan is a tectonic event, and its reverberations will be spread from its Washington epicentre not only to Silicon Valley, but beyond to the rest of the world.
The implications for India will be particularly interesting, not only as an emerging AI power but as a Global South leader, and the host of the next big global AI gathering – the AI Impact Summit in February 2026.
These new policies might turbocharge Big TechAI development and their stock prices and accelerate startup and venture activity along with unbridled AI infrastructure enhancement.
However, the absence of regulatory guardrails could also expose society to increased misinformation, algorithmic harms and uncheckedcommercial surveillance. There is a very real risk that this economic acceleration could outpace ethical oversight, inviting public backlash.
It would also put the spotlight on Europe. There will be pressure on regulators to loosen up, with European startups threatening to decamp to the US.
But then this is also a real, long-term opportunity for the EU to be the custodian of ‘trustworthy AI’.
China and its AI companies could be winners here. Countering the US’ unilateral stance, China has started taking the position of AI inclusivity, by pushing open source AI models and announcing a global Shanghai Initiative to form a World AI Cooperation Organisation.
DeepSeek and other models have already demonOrganisation. DeepSeek a models ready demonstrated that it is catching up on AI leadership with the US, and its open source, inclusive stance could win over more allies. However, the statist, centralised control exerted by the Chinese Communist Party, with a focus on surveillance and control will be a deterrent for many.
For the rest of the world, particularly in the Global South, this divergence presents a dilemma on who to follow. It is here that there is a unique opportunity for India, to reject this binary choice, balance ambition with caution, and carve out a ‘third way’ that emphasises ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure and co-created governance.
India has many advantages here: the world’s largest democ- racy and a leader of the Global South, a strong tech ecosystem, and a much admired model in its Digital Public Infrastructure ( DPI), which has effectively balanced innovation and social equity.
I have written about this third way, what I call coined ‘JanAI’, where India leads with a DPI-like initiative to make AI and its applications a public good in India. Many countries are keen to emulate the DPI initiative; they will likely flock to a similar AI initiative leadership.
It is also an opportune coincidence that India is hosting the AI Impact Summit in 2026, the largest such gathering of AI leaders.
To emerge as a third pole, however, India must clarify its own AI stance, create a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, and make AI a ‘national mission’ as it did with the Green Revolution, population control, and, indeed, the DPI/DPG initiative.
Focusing on AI for Good and AI for All, with ethical innovation, inclusive infrastructure, universal AI literacy and co-created governance with industry, academia and civil society will help it carve out this elusive ‘middle path’ and give it a legitimate platform to lead the rest of the world.
In technology, it is often said the US innovates, Europe regulates, China replicates, and, often, India procrastinates.
However, the game has changed. Trump’s AI policy may indeed propel the US into a dominant position, but there it could be at a great social cost. As AI becomes the foundational infrastructure of this century, the rules we write today will shape everything from elections to employment to existential risk.
India, with its demographic scale, digital backbone and convening power in 2026, has a once-in-a-generation chance to help the world write those rules—not in Washington, Shanghai or Brussels, but in New Delhi.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com)
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