America’s AI Reset - Trump vs The world

The new strategy rests on three pillars: sweeping deregulation (think big green lights when it comes to selling AI tech around the world), rapid AI infrastructure growth (that’s local data centres and innovation hubs) and consolidating federal control over AI standards at the expense of state oversight and environmental rules.

What the plan promises

• Federal dominance, state preemption. The plan threatens to withhold federal funding from any state pursuing stricter AI rules and insists on a single national standard.
• Energy-first infrastructure. Fast-tracked permitting and regulatory rollbacks favour gas, coal and nuclear energy for AI data centres over renewables. Environmental protections are being dismantled.
• Deregulation and ideological bias crackdowns. Biden’s AI guardrails have been revoked, and companies are under pressure to certify their models as bias-neutral or face scrutiny.

Industry insiders have cheered. Tech investors welcome the rollback of rules and federal regulations. But that enthusiasm ignores what, and who, is left behind.

The SME blindspot

For large firms and data-hued incumbents, the benefits are clear i.e. fewer barriers, deeper subsidies, a national playing field. But startups, regional AI innovators and smaller enterprises aren’t reckoned with at all.

At Decidr, we’ve worked with SMEs across the globe and you know what? These firms don’t have scale, they have context. They rely on state programs, modest funding and nimble local governance. A policy that punishes local AI regulations may wipe out their competitive runway.

That means that this plan only works for the big end of town.

By treating all companies the same, it overlooks how smaller players operate. Local AI startups don’t have the same resources or reach as global tech giants, but they do have deep knowledge of their industries, customers and communities. They move faster, build differently and they often lead innovation in ways that matter most.

By ignoring these differences, the plan risks pushing innovation into the hands of a few powerful companies. That’s risky. A healthy AI future depends on a mix of perspectives, sizes and voices, not just a few giants calling the shots.

Faster is rarely ever smarter

Moving fast is not the same as moving well. Trump’s plan proposes lifting protections under the Clean Water Act and NEPA to expedite data centre builds. Environmental groups warn of consequences: degraded wetlands, reduced public oversight and escalating litigation.

Even if infrastructure accelerates, the plan offers weak mechanisms for accountability. Prioritising speed without governance is a recipe for drift, opaque outcome loops and systemic failure.

We’ve already seen how brittle systems collapse (e.g. Mr Musk’s/Grok’s incorrect Tsunami updates or Google’s Gemini continuing to hallucinate), when energy shifts, laws change or AI decisions go sideways. National dominance is worthless if trust, transparency and resilience collapse behind the shine of build-out speed.

Rethinking AI strategy upstream

Decidr’s work focuses on how organisations design decisions, not just deploy models. Trump’s approach misses upstream governance entirely. It assumes that AI excellence begins with capacity, not context.

But context underpins capacity. Without published accountability frameworks (At the time of publishing, there are no clearly defined, publicly available rules or systems that explain how AI models or decision systems are governed, tested or held responsible for their outcomes), SMEs that lack scale cannot validate their outputs or prove compliance. Without structural diversity, innovation centralises in a few hands. Without oversight, bias and safety become afterthoughts.

What we need now are independent rules, open collaboration and industry-specific design because when big money and top-down politics take over, those checks and balances often disappear.

American ambition, global risk

America may be sprinting ahead in AI infrastructure and regulatory rollback. But that vision fits the few big players, not the many.

Trump’s plan is aggressive. It’s designed for incumbents. It is silent on the sustainability and structurally safe deployment of AI. For SMEs, regional innovators and global partners, it offers ambition and inspiration, but not inclusion.

Decidr’s mission is to help organisations engineer decisions. True AI leadership isn’t about building faster or bigger. It’s about creating robust systems that work across scales i.e. with trust, explainability and diversity baked in.

If the U.S. bets solely on scale and speed, the global AI ecosystem may still lose. Because leadership without design discipline rarely lasts.