Sam Winter-Levy

Assessing the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan Unpacking the Trump administration's AI Action Plan — what’s new, what’s not, and what’s next.

The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan and accompanying executive orders are friendly to companies and hostile to “woke AI.”

But these policies’ effects will depend on their implementation, writes @samwl.bsky.social in @justsecurity.org: www.justsecurity.org/117765/asses...

Assessing the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan Unpacking the Trump administration's AI Action Plan — what’s new, what’s not, and what’s next.

The Trump administration has unveiled its most ambitious AI strategy to date, with the goal of achieving “unquestioned and unchallenged” global dominance in AI.

@samwl.bsky.social (@carnegieendowment.org) unpacks the AI Action Plan - what’s new, what’s not, and what’s next.

#AIActionPlan

The Just Security Podcast: Decoding Trump’s AI Playbook: The AI Action Plan and What Comes Next Joshua Geltzer, Jenny Marron and Sam Winter-Levy join Brianna Rosen on the show to discuss the Trump administration's U.S. AI Action Plan.

The Trump administration has released its long-awaited #AI Action Plan.

Leading experts Josh Geltzer, Jennifer Marron, @briannarosen.bsky.social, and @samwl.bsky.social unpack the plan, its implications, and what lies ahead.

www.justsecurity.org/117752/just-...

The Nvidia Chip Deal Trades Away the United States’ AI Advantage Right when the Trump administration should be ramping up export controls, its trade strategy is undermining them.

Beijing has claimed last week’s trade deal with Nvidia as a win for China. Is it actually?

Probably, write @samwl.bsky.social‬ and Alasdair Phillips-Robins in @foreignpolicy.com: the U.S. should tighten its AI export controls, not undercut them.

Full article: foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/22/n...

The Nvidia Chip Deal Trades Away the United States’ AI Advantage Right when the Trump administration should be ramping up export controls, its trade strategy is undermining them.

In @foreignpolicy.com, Alasdair Phillips-Robins and I wrote about the Trump administration’s mismanagement of export control policy. In its desperation to reach a deal in its trade war with China, the administration has hamstrung its ability to impose new chip restrictions:

Opinion | The gulf is not the place to build the world’s AI infrastructure Drone threats make the UAE and Saudi Arabia the wrong homes for critical AI data centers.

Trump's Gulf datacenter plan will put a key node of the world’s AI infrastructure in locations highly vulnerable to drone attack. Yet despite these obvious risks, physical security has barely registered in the public debate. That needs to change. My latest, in @washingtonpost.com: wapo.st/46SQXKe

What Comes Next After Trump’s AI Deals in the Gulf Recent major U.S. chip export deals with the Gulf mark the emergence of a new powerhouse in the AI race.

What exactly do the AI deals that President Trump made on his Gulf trip entail? And what’s next for AI policy in the U.S., the Gulf, and the world?

@samwl.bsky.social and Alasdair Phillips-Robins explained for @justsecurity.org:

What Comes Next After Trump’s AI Deals in the Gulf Recent major U.S. chip export deals with the Gulf mark the emergence of a new powerhouse in the AI race.

Recent major U.S. chip export deals with the #Gulf mark the emergence of a new powerhouse in the #AI race.

Alasdair Phillips-Robins and @samwl.bsky.social (@carnegieendowment.org) unpack what comes next.

www.justsecurity.org/113944/what-...

How to Gauge Whether Trump’s AI Chip Deals With Gulf Countries Are Any Good Several key factors will hint at whether Trump used the United States’ considerable leverage around AI to minimize risk.

AI deals were a major focus of President Trump’s trip to the Middle East last week. But what should we make of these deals? Do they open the U.S. up to economic opportunities, or security risks?

Alasdair Phillips-Robins and @samwl.bsky.social on how to tell: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

Great @nytimes.com reporting from @anaswanson.bsky.social, ft some closing comments from me on the tensions between an America First AI policy and the decision to offshore the world's most powerful AI facilities to the UAE:

Shared some more skeptical reactions to Trump's Gulf AI deals with @washingtonpost.com: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Shared a couple of thoughts with @anaswanson.bsky.social for the @nytimes.com on the risks of letting the Gulf amass giant concentrations of cutting-edge AI chips: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/b...

Some thoughts from me in the
@washingtonpost.com on what's shaping up to be a bad AI deal with the Gulf: washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Don’t Offshore American AI to the Middle East After freeing itself from a dependence on the region’s oil, the United States should not sign up for the same with AI.

8/ Full article, in @foreignpolicy.com, with Alasdair Phillips-Robins: foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/08/u...

7/ For half a century, the United States has struggled to free itself from its dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Let's not repeat that mistake with AI.

6/ A smart deal would allow U.S. tech companies to build some datacenters in partnership with local orgs, but bar offshoring of their most sophisticated ops. In return, the Gulf should cut off investment in China’s AI and semiconductor sectors and safeguard exported U.S. tech

5/ There is a Gulf-US deal to be had, but the US has the leverage to drive a hard bargain.

4/ In a tight market, every chip sold to Gulf companies is one unavailable to US ones. And if the admin greenlights the offshoring of US-operated datacenters, it risks a race to the bottom where every AI developer must exploit cheap Gulf energy and capital to compete

3/ The Trump admin is clearly tempted. But those risks haven't gone away. The UAE and Saudi both have close ties with China and Russia, increasing the risk that US tech could leak to adversaries.

2/ Gulf states have vast AI ambitions and the money/energy to realize them. All they need are the chips. So since 2023, when the US limited exports over bipartisan concerns about their links to China, the region’s leaders have pleaded with the U.S. to turn the taps back on.

1/ The Trump admin may be about to greenlight the export of advanced AI chips to the Gulf. If it does so, it will place the most important technology of the 21st C at the whims of autocrats with expanding ties to China and interests very far from those of the US.

How AI Is Reshaping the Global Order | Europe Inside Out Rym Momtaz, Sinan Ülgen, and Sam Winter-Levy examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping international politics and will define the future of the tech industry.

My conversation with @samwl.bsky.social moderated by @rmomtaz.bsky.social on how AI is re- shaping the world order. @carnegieeurope.bsky.social @carnegieendowment.org. Part of the europe-inside-out podcast.

europe-inside-out.simplecast.com/episodes/how...

USIP, the Wilson Center, and the Politics of Wrecking I recently received this email from Nate Cavanaugh, listed as the “Acting Chairman and President” of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP): It cancelled a contract for a special r…

Some thoughts on DOGE/the Trump administration's destruction of USIP, the Wilson Center, and home-grown social science/area studies expertise about the rest of the world:
paulstaniland.com/2025/04/16/u...

Thought this take by Matt on the CCP's relationship to its tech champions was particularly interesting:

Chips, China, and a Lot of Money: The Factors Driving the DeepSeek AI Turmoil Two experts discuss the Chinese AI startup that’s causing global turbulence and what they’re watching for in the coming weeks.

In the wake of DeepSeek's market-jolting release, @carnegieendowment.org's Matt Sheehan and I explain why export controls almost certainly still matter, how the Chinese govt is likely to respond, and what this means for the U.S.-China AI race more broadly carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/0...

The Future of the AI Diffusion Framework The Biden administration's AI diffusion rule is another salvo in the United States' escalating AI competition with China.

Some more thoughts on the AI diffusion framework in @justsecurity.org. If the Trump admin keeps it—big if!—it gives them a ready-made new bargaining chip as leverage in international negotiations: www.justsecurity.org/106545/the-f...

The Future of the AI Diffusion Framework The Biden administration's AI diffusion rule is another salvo in the United States' escalating AI competition with China.

How widely should the US share its #AI technologies?

Amid growing competition with #China, the Trump admin will have to grapple with this question as it reviews the Biden-era diffusion rule, writes @samwl.bsky.social.

www.justsecurity.org/106545/the-f...

With Its Latest Rule, the U.S. Tries to Govern AI’s Global Spread How to understand the Biden administration’s new AI diffusion framework.

The rule's future is uncertain. But whether they scrap it or not, the Trump admin will have to reckon with the same underlying national security pressures and economic incentives that drove its development: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

And it's worth noting: The actual impact on most nations will be limited. This mainly affects countries planning major AI data centers, not general AI development and use.

The Biden admin's counter: China lacks capacity to export large numbers of AI chips. They're still struggling to meet domestic needs, still reliant on smuggling and stockpiling downgraded US chips, so the US has leverage to set global standards—for now.