Tech, US officials discuss AI development, power needs at White House

By Timothy Gardner and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House announced a new task force to deal with the growing needs of AI infrastructure after a meeting on Thursday between senior U.S. officials and top technology and power company executives.

Led by the National Economic Council, the National Security Council and others, the task force will coordinate policies to advance data center development while weighing economic, national security, and environmental goals, the White House said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were among the tech company representatives who attended the meeting.

The White House said participants discussed how to meet clean energy, permitting and workforce requirements for developing data centers and power infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations.

Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse.

AI can strain the energy industry as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding data centers.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also participated in the meeting.

Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden’s administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden’s target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly,” said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard also took part, along with top Biden administration climate officials.

The meeting shows that the White House recognizes the priority of infrastructure to create jobs and help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, OpenAI said.

“OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to the country’s industrial policy and economic future,” a company spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Jonathan Oatis and Diane Craft)