This Is Donald Trump’s AI Brain Trust
The Trump administration is navigating a fragmented approach to AI regulation, with various agencies and officials holding conflicting views on how to maintain US competitiveness against China. Key figures like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are balancing export controls with efforts to incentivize domestic AI development.
Why it matters
As the US government lacks a unified AI policy, the influence of specific power brokers will dictate the future of AI regulation and the competitive landscape for major tech labs.
The group is scattered across several departments and agencies in Washington—and they all have differing views on the best way to keep the US ahead in the race against China.
“It’s not an argument with two sides, it’s an argument with ten sides,” one senior White House official tells WIRED about the state of affairs.
With little interagency coordination in the administration, policy will almost certainly end up being set by the people with the most influence with the president. In an effort to map the forces at play, here’s a list of the current power brokers involved in the race to regulate AI.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick
Howard Lutnick has increasingly emerged as an influential part of the intra-administration split over AI, in part because it oversees export controls through the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in