Palantir’s Response to White House OSTP on Developing AI Action Plan
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Palantir’s Response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on Developing an AI Action Plan
The United States must act decisively to maintain its AI leadership position
At Palantir, we see our work as a duty and privilege: to support the United States of America, its core national interests, and the civilization of which it is a part. We are proud that this includes making the software upon which many of the world’s most vital institutions, from defense and intelligence agencies to companies in the healthcare, energy, and manufacturing sectors, rely.
The United States stands at a critical juncture in artificial intelligence (AI) development and deployment. While the U.S. maintains significant advantages in AI innovation, it faces mounting challenges from nation-state adversaries and strategic competitors, particularly the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. We should meet this challenge as Americans always have: with bravery, tenacity, and respect for the enormous responsibilities that come with freedom.
In response to the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on AI, we submitted a response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Request for Information (RFI) regarding the Development of an AI Action Plan that “will define the priority policy actions needed to sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance, and to ensure that unnecessarily burdensome requirements do not hamper private sector AI innovation.” Our recommendations, summarized below, propose specific actions to enhance U.S. AI leadership while promoting human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.
Although AI touches a vast aperture of policy issues, from energy consumption to workforce implications, our recommendations focused on software and application aspects of AI policy, covering five mission sets:
Modernize Federal AI Acquisition and Deployment
Invest in Foundational Data Infrastructure to Support Operational Precision in AI Applications Across All Agencies
Establish Initiatives and Incentives to Promote Sound AI Adoption and Innovation
Pursue Existing Opportunities for AI Adoption in Government
Maintain American Global Leadership in AI
Below are highlights from our response. We encourage you to read the full submission here.
Recommendations
1. Modernize Federal AI Acquisition and Deployment
America has the most vibrant and capable tech industry on the planet, yet policy and habit limit the federal government from taking full advantage of these capabilities due to an unwillingness to challenge broken orthodoxies and fix byzantine procurement and certification processes. This has contributed to severe inefficiencies across the federal government that waste the wealth of the American people and imperil the ability of our nation’s bedrock institutions to execute on their most critical missions. To secure freedom, safeguard private data, and deliver prosperity for the American people in the 21st century, the federal government must streamline and accelerate the acquisition and implementation of AI capabilities across federal agencies. We recommend the following steps to achieve this mission:
Revamp and Strengthen the Federal Acquisition Streamline Act (FASA): Taxpayer dollars must be spent prudently, avoiding unnecessary waste and costly delays.
Reform the Authority to Operate (ATO) Process to Accelerate AI System Deployment: The ATO process for AI systems should be streamlined and accelerated.
Expand Use of Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) for AI Procurement with Appropriate Commercial Contracting Terms: OTAs provide a flexible and efficient mechanism for procuring innovative technologies like AI. Expanding the use of OTAs for AI could allow agencies to rapidly acquire cutting-edge AI solutions from non-traditional vendors and accelerate the pace of AI adoption within the government.
2. Invest in Foundational Data Infrastructure to Support Operational Precision in AI Applications Across Agencies
We are at the early stages of an AI revolution, and America’s success depends not only on continuing to develop cutting-edge technologies of increasing power and sophistication, but also on building and maintaining the critical infrastructure necessary to ensure operational precision in their many applications, from machine shop floors, to clinical health environments, to the battlefield.
Additionally, the force-multiplying power of AI models — speed, scale, processing volume, etc. — requires exact configurations to domain-specific contexts, standards, and policies. To enable government agencies to field AI for real-world, operational use cases, efficiently and with maximal regard for meeting domain-specific markers of excellence, we recommend the following investments:
Testing and Evaluation Capabilities, Guidelines, and Environments: Testing and Evaluation (“T&E”) is critical for getting AI from prototype to production. For government agencies to wield AI as a tool to solve real-world challenges, the Administration should prioritize establishing dedicated T&E capabilities for AI systems that are able to validate performance prior to general release and assist with ongoing monitoring to track performance in operational use.
Privacy, Security, Data Protection, and Data Governance: Privacy is not just a matter of individual rights; it is a national security issue. It is therefore critical for Federal agencies to prioritize infrastructure and applications that best secure the freedoms of the American people and promote human flourishing — particularly those measures that will safeguard individual privacy and the security of sensitive data.
3. Establish Initiatives and Incentives to Promote Sound AI Adoption and Innovation
We offer here two straightforward recommendations for addressing two of the most significant impediments to AI systems adoption: a) the dearth of high quality, domain-specific data critical to training and fine-tuning AI models and application environments, and b) the lack of dedicated budget allocations needed to programmatically align agencies towards AI-enriched outcomes:
Testbed Initiative: Government agencies generate a wealth of data as they pursue their missions. We recommend leveraging these vast data holdings by creating agency-specific AI testbeds that utilize operationally relevant data (in appropriately deidentified or minimized form), alongside descriptions of agency problems and use cases, in an environment that allows for collaboration with external stakeholders, and that supports proper access controls, security measures, and privacy protection to advance the missions of their agency.
Increase AI Budget Allocation to At Least 1% of Agency Budgets: AI technology provides a way for the government to increase the quality of its service to Americans while simultaneously reducing costs and saving the taxpayer money. To encourage AI adoption in the face of bureaucratic drift, the Trump Administration should set as a goal that 1% of every agency budget be spent on AI modernization efforts.
4. Pursue Existing Opportunities for AI Adoption in Government
There are already several critical areas where AI integration would be of great benefit to the American people. We recommend the following as clear, quick wins for the Administration while emphasizing that AI-driven solutions can and should be applied to the full aperture of the federal government:
Expand Funding for Integration of AI Into C2 Systems: Command and Control (“C2”) systems require constant insights in real time from varied and complex datasets, and streamlined decision making and seamless communication across many different platforms is critical for maintaining America’s advantage on the battlefield. AI has already proven crucial to this endeavor, as evidenced by the success of programs like Project Maven. Further investments integrating AI throughout our C2 systems, including clear pathways for moving AI experiments to production as they prove themselves out, will augment the capabilities of our military and keep Americans safe.
Expand Investments in Healthcare Data Sources: Healthcare remains an industry where further AI investment is sorely needed. In particular, better cultivation and maintenance of healthcare datasets would pave the way for an expansion of AI-driven solutions across the field — bringing down costs, ensuring private, sensitive data is more secure, and enabling better care. Initiatives like the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) have demonstrated the effectiveness of these efforts, and the government should continue to pursue similar opportunities where prudent.
Enhance Fraud Detection Capabilities: As efforts continue to ensure taxpayer money is spent in ways that further the core interests of the American people, there are extraordinary opportunities to leverage AI’s capabilities to detect instances of fraud and corruption. The work of entities like the Department of Government Efficiency and GAO targeting waste, fraud, and abuse should be standardized across agencies so that potential malfeasance can be monitored and dealt with in real time. Investing in AI-driven mechanisms to assist in these tasks provides a powerful, cost-effective force multiplier for accomplishing this mission.
Agency-Specific Flagship AI Programs: Finally, we recommend that the Trump Administration include in its AI Action Plan a mandate for each government agency to complete a new flagship AI project within nine months of the Action Plan being published, working through OSTP for project approval and completion. Such a directive would encourage domain experts and public servants to think critically and creatively about ways to serve the American people more effectively while advancing their agency’s core mission sets.
5. Maintain American Global Leadership in AI
As adversaries and groups hostile to the United States seek to utilize AI to advance their own interests, it is crucial for the U.S. to demonstrate leadership in the development of this technology and that we preserve a clear focus on the values that undergird our nation. We suggest the following measures for preserving America’s technological edge, advancing its role as a leader in AI, and securing the fundamental freedoms that help constitute our nation’s greatness:
Strengthen American AI Leadership by Hosting the Next Global AI Summit in Silicon Valley in 2025: This would achieve two objectives: First, it would serve as an important symbolic reminder of the region’s deep historical ties to American national security, a message all of the Valley needs to hear today. Second, hosting the summit in Silicon Valley would serve as a powerful statement to domestic and global audiences alike that the Valley’s tech ecosystem has long thrived through government synergy, making it the ideal stage to chart AI’s future.
Limit Adversary Access to Cutting Edge AI Hardware by Leveraging Chip Diplomacy and Robust Export Controls It is more crucial than ever to take steps that will slow advancements in this technology by America’s adversaries, chiefly the Chinese Communist Party. Accordingly, the United States must continue to implement and enforce robust export control policies to prevent the most advanced AI chips from reaching China, a measure crucial for maintaining America’s competitive edge in AI development and national security.
Reaffirm American Values in and Through AI Adoption as the Necessary Alternative to Our Adversaries: America’s adversaries are determined to use the awesome potential of AI technologies exactly as they have always taken advantage of innovation in science, engineering, and manufacturing: to enhance their power, subjugate their people, undermine their enemies, and extinguish liberty. To secure American freedom, the United States must drive and lead AI innovation in ways that affirm our fundamental values alongside like-minded partners and allies.
Conclusion
The United States must act decisively to maintain its AI leadership position while ensuring these groundbreaking, world-shaping technological advancements align not with the worldview favored by authoritarian regimes, but rather with those values which promote liberty and human flourishing. This will require significant investment and broad institutional reform, and above all, it will demand sustained commitment to America’s core values and interests, as well as a full understanding of the intersection between these values and future AI development. The recommendations outlined in our RFI submission provide a framework for achieving these objectives while maintaining America’s competitive advantage in this critical technology.