Tech, US officials to discuss AI development, White House says By Reuters

By Timothy Gardner and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House announced a new task force to deal with the growing needs of AI infrastructure after a meeting on Thursday between senior U.S. officials and top technology and power company executives.

Led by the National Economic Council, the National Security Council and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff’s office, the interagency Task Force will coordinate policies to advance data center development operations that take into consideration the nation’s economic, national security, and environmental goals, the White House said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google (NASDAQ:) senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were among the tech company representatives who attended the meeting, the White House said. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (NASDAQ:), also attended the meeting.

“We appreciated the opportunity to meet with senior administration officials to discuss efforts to ensure AI development in the US and the needs to modernize the nation’s utility grid, expedite permitting for new projects, and ensure timely grid connections for carbon-free energy projects that will drive growth in both the technology and manufacturing sectors,” a spokesperson for Amazon (NASDAQ:) Web Services, or AWS, said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard also took part, along with top Biden administration climate officials. CNN first reported the meeting.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly,” said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will also meet with the executives.

Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden’s administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden’s target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change.

The meeting shows that the White House recognizes the priority of infrastructure to create jobs and help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, OpenAI said.

“OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to the country’s industrial policy and economic future,” a company spokesperson said.

Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse.

The meeting will also focus on fostering public-private work in advancing AI and on workforce and permitting needs associated with the technology.

AI also strains the energy and metals industries as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding data centers.