What The US AI Action Plan Means For Export Controls And US National Security

This article is the second installment in our series on the White House's AI Action Plan and America's Evolving AI Posture (the Plan). Read the introduction to our serieshereandPart Oneon what the plan means for domestic AI governance. Here in Part Two, we turn to the Plan's national security and export control dimensions, where the stakes are high and the trade-offs are especially sharp.

The White House's AI Action Plan¹ (the Plan) casts AI leadership as a global race for technological dominance, market share, and the ability to shape the rules and standards that will govern AI worldwide in the future. At the heart of the race lies an implicit tension: Yes, exporting AI technology expands US influence and provides capital to fuel further innovation investment. But each export presents an opportunity for exploitation by adversaries intent on accessing the US's superior technology and displacing it in the future. AI is inherently a dual-use technology. It drives