White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios on Friday said that the US “totally rejects global governance of artificial intelligence”, arguing that its “adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control”.
Lauding the Trump administration, Kratsios recalled that within days of returning to the White House last year, the President reaffirmed America’s commitment to AI leadership. Trump repealed the previous administration’s “diffusion framework”, which had restricted AI exports and placed partner nations such as India in “second tier”, he said.
“As the Trump administration has said many times, we totally reject global governance of AI,” Kratsios said. “AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucratic oversight and centralised control.”
His remarks came during a session titled “Partnering on American AI Exports, Powering the Future”.
On Thursday, in a keynote address, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres stressed that “AI must belong to everyone”, warning that the technology’s future “cannot be decided by a handful of countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires”.
Addressing concerns about technological independence, Kratsios said that complete self-containment in AI is unrealistic for any country, given the complexity of the AI stack.
“Strategic autonomy alongside rapid AI adoption is both achievable and necessary for independent nations,” he said, adding that “America wants to help”.
“Real AI sovereignty means owning and using best-in-class technology for the benefit of your people, and charting your national destiny in the midst of global transformations. It does not mean waiting to participate in an AI-enabled global market until you have tried and failed to build full self-sufficiency,” he said.