Technology and Democracy Programs Offer Recommendations for Development of AI Action Plan

Last week, New America’s Technology and Democracy programs filed comments in response to the National Science Foundation’s request for comments on the Trump administration’s development of an AI Action Plan. Our comments emphasize the ways in which maintaining our commitment to fairness, openness, and democratic values will enable U.S. global competitiveness in AI innovation. AI cannot enable human flourishing without the trust required for its adoption. Trust, in turn, depends upon continued progress in ensuring that AI systems are safe, effective, and fair.

We stand at a critical juncture where “technopoly”—the surrender of culture and governance to technological imperatives—threatens to become the default operating system for advanced economies. When powerful AI systems are developed primarily by a handful of companies and nations, the risk of technopolarization grows acute: a world divided between those who control AI systems and those who are merely subject to them. This concentration of power would entrench existing global inequities and undermine long-term U.S. interests by creating fertile ground for competing powers to position themselves as technological liberators.

We offer eight recommendations that leverage America’s core strengths—its considerable state capacity in AI governance and scientific research, a dynamic private sector, world-class research institutions, and vibrant civil society—while acknowledging the necessity of global engagement. This approach emphasizes market-driven partnerships, multi-stakeholder networks, and strategic convening power that distributes (rather than concentrates) technological agency.