Mike and Brent go All-In regarding America’s AI Action Plan, unveiled by the White House on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, and discussed in detail at a forum the same day co-sponsored by the All-In Podcast and the Hill & Valley Forum.
Mike and Brent discuss how these developments relate to the “Moment of Truth” discussed in Episode 20 (00:31), the Three Pillars of America’s AI Action Plan (01:07), how the Three Pillars relate to their recent BRG ThinkSet magazine article (01:45), the commercial opportunity presented by full-stack AI export privileges under the AI Action Plan and how the “stack sweeps” previewed on Episode 19 are the compliance corollary to this commercial opportunity (02:32), Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s remarks about where to draw the line between sensitive and non-sensitive exports from a national security perspective and how this relates back to their recent ThinkSet article (05:00), how Pillar Three—Lead in International AI Diplomacy & Security—relates to many ongoing bilateral trade negotiations (07:23), the importance of not making anyone look like a sucker or a fool (08:34), the AI Action Plan’s reference to secondary tariffs as a means to make sure other countries don’t “backfill” where U.S. export controls create opportunities (08:53), the potential impact of the Maintaining American Superiority by Improving Export Control Transparency Act that is on the President’s desk for signature into law (11:20), the continuing relevance of end-user and end-use controls and the “high probability” standard (14:10), how Pillar Three also focuses on strengthening AI compute export controls enforcement by the Department of Commerce with support from the U.S. intelligence community (15:23), updates on Department of Commerce political employees’ confirmation process and reference therein to the Bureau of Industry & Security's “red flag” guidance to industry (16:21), and the fundamental “deal” between the U.S. government and the U.S. tech sector evident in the AI Action Plan (18:42). Mike and Brent then conclude with an “all-in” version of Brent Carlson’s “Managing Up” segment (24:46).
America’s AI Action Plan: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf
The White House’s Announcement of America’s AI Action Plan: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/white-house-unveils-americas-ai-action-plan/
The All-In Podcast: https://allin.com/
The Hill & Valley Forum: https://www.thehillandvalleyforum.com/
More about Brent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-carlson-41ba692/
More about Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhuneke/
Mike & Brent’s “Fresh Looks” series: https://www.hugheshubbard.com/fresh-looks