President Donald Trump’s recent AI announcement has the potential to jumpstart a technological “renaissance” in the United States and serve as a strong declaration, similar to former President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to put a man on the moon, according to a top former White House information technology (IT) official.
During a speech at the White House, Trump announced that Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle have joined forces for Stargate, a project to build data centers in the U.S. for powering AI. The initial investment for the project will be $100 billion, with plans to expand to $500 billion over the next four years. The first data center built under the initiative will be in Texas, and it will eventually expand to other states.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Theresa Payton, the first female White House Chief Information Officer during President George W. Bush’s administration, says the news, which Trump calls the “largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history,” has her attention.
TRUMP’S AI DEAL FUELING EARLY CANCER DETECTION: ORACLE’S LARRY ELLISON
“I do really believe that very much like when you read in the history books about how President Kennedy said, we’re going to put a man on the moon. This is one of those big declarations that’s so important to the future of America. This has the potential to be sort of the beacon of America’s technological progress. And I really think our true success, though, is going to hinge on what goes behind the big headline,” she said.
To ensure success and a U.S. lead in AI, Payton says the project should set a “gold standard” for the rest of the world regarding responsible innovation, considering safety, security, individual rights, and privacy.
The first data center built under the initiative will be in Texas, eventually expanding to other states. The Trump administration claims that the venture could create 100,000 new jobs.
Payton told Fox News Digital that the people involved in the project have been through several technology innovation changes and have had to reimagine their companies and the skillsets needed to thrive—with the potential to offer firsthand knowledge on what is needed to mitigate workforce displacement.
A LOOK AT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FIRST FULL DAY IN THE WHITE HOUSE
“If you think about the typing pools of the past and how they were replaced by word processing if you think about manufacturing jobs that were replaced by robotics and machinery, we need to be thinking about that upfront and showing people who are in jobs impacted. You can be retrained, you can be upskilled, things can be retooled. And I do believe it will create sort of the next technology renaissance,” she said.
Payton believes that Trump’s foray into AI infrastructure can have great economic impacts if the United States “dreams” the project upfront and sets the proper requirements.
The project represents a growing entanglement between Trump and Big Tech leaders, a relationship that has some critics worried. On Monday, CNN referred to Trump’s return to the White House as the “inauguration of the oligarchs.”
President Biden warned in his farewell speech of an “ultra-wealthy” “oligarchy” posing a threat to America as big tech CEOs were warming up to then President-elect Trump in recent months.
However, Payton says that how Trump handles these relationships will be the true test of their success or failure.
“There are career government employees, there are private sector companies. There are different industry sectors. And each one of them plays a role in making our economy strong and improving our national security. And, you know, I think you could probably say about every president, they bring with them a set of relationships. And so, the key is really just understanding how are those relationships utilized in a way that benefits the United States and, you know, kind of let the results and the deliverables be, the proof of, you know, how those relationships are being leveraged,” she said.
Payton also noted that the Trump administration’s transparency will be key to the success of AI, infrastructure and energy projects in the U.S.
This week, Trump live-streamed the signing of executive orders, calling out loud what they are as he held them up and letting reporters ask questions. She suggested that level of transparency on large administration projects would be “incredible.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
However, her greatest fear is that short-term deliverables regarding massive spending and big strategic projects will not be announced or met.
“I saw this when I worked in financial services, and you can see it in government projects is what are the deliverables in 30, 60, 90 days. So that, to me, hopefully, they’re going to start releasing an approach that shows you sort of 90-day sprints over the next year, over the next two years for the Stargate project, so that we actually see kind of how the money is being spent, the successes and keep people sort of behind the success, rooting, cheering for it, but also that level of transparency that’s going to be needed,” she added.
Payton also stressed that the computers from large datacenters must be properly appropriated and designated for important causes and not frivolously overspent on low-level AI tasks.
Leave a Reply