CISOs Cautiously Support Trump’s AI Action Plan: Report

However, CISOs, a CEO, and Big Tech firms all have varying reactions to Trump’s plan.

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan”, which it says, “charts a decisive course to cement U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence.”

CISOs overall support Trump’s AI plan, but there are concerns that the initiative will bring more challenges to their jobs, according to a new report from Absolute Security.

The cybersecurity firm polled 500 U.S.-based CISOs. Here are key findings:

79 percent of CISOs said they support “revoking AI regulations that stall innovation”
61 percent said that pulling back regulations will make it “harder to secure their organizations”

70 percent said they anticipate more AI deregulation down the road

CISOs were also asked about their views on cyber resilience and on DeepSeek— the Chinese AI chatbot that shook up the tech world so much so that U.S. and Asian tech stocks nosedived the day DeepSeek was announced back in January.

83 percent of CISOs said cyber resilience “is more critical” for their organizations than “traditional cybersecurity measures”
90 percent reported having a cyber resilience strategy in place

Sharing their views on DeepSeek:

69 percent said the Chinese chatbot will increase the volume of cyberattacks
65 percent have banned DeepSeek in their organization
77 percent said it’s the government’s job to regulate DeepSeek the same it has with TikTok

“CISOs polled are being loud and clear, they are fully on board with removing barriers that stall innovation and are aware of the risks caused by fast-moving technology shifts,” said Christy Wyatt, president and CEO, Absolute Security, in a statement. “The survey also reveals that security leaders are adopting resilience-focused strategies to ensure their organizations remain secure in a world that is being radically reshaped by AI.”

One midmarket IT leader also expressed the same optimistic sentiment as the polled CISOs.

“It is not just the AI. Think of all the infrastructure related to making this big AI action plan happen and how many industries it will touch and jobs created just to support the effort. This is not like the space race, this is a much larger project, and the overall ramifications will be massive,” said Ryan Benner, a director of IT operations at water treatment company Garratt-Callahan, based in Burlingame, Calif.

Security CEO Cites Concerns

However, a CEO at a security company shared some concerns about the plan.

“I’ve seen this before in cybersecurity. Self-regulation can be effective to a point, but it often lacks the teeth needed to prevent bad actors from exploiting loopholes or simply ignoring the rules altogether,” Stu McClure the CEO of Qwiet.ai, which creates a platform to secure code, said in a statement shared with MES Computing.

McClure said the AI action plan is light on some crucial details.

“The plan touches on security, but it doesn’t go deep enough into the specific vulnerabilities and threats facing AI systems. It’s not enough to talk about responsible use; we need concrete measures to protect AI infrastructure, data, and models from attacks. My experience in cybersecurity has taught me that attackers are always looking for new ways to exploit vulnerabilities, and AI presents a whole new attack surface. The plan needs to address these specific security challenges, including adversarial AI, data poisoning, and model theft, with dedicated resources and expertise,” he said.

“While the plan mentions international cooperation, it doesn’t articulate a clear strategy for working with other countries to establish global standards and norms for AI development and deployment. I think this is a critical oversight. Without international collaboration, we risk a fragmented landscape of AI governance, which could hinder innovation and create opportunities for bad actors to operate in jurisdictions with lax regulations. We need a unified global approach to address the ethical, security, and societal implications of AI,” he added.

McClure also touched on an issue cited by many AI ethics experts: bias. There’s a single mention of bias in Trump’s plan and that is that a goal of the plan is to “ensure that the government only contracts with frontier large language model developers who ensure that their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.”

“I’m deeply concerned about the inherent biases that can creep into AI systems, often reflecting the biases present in the data they’re trained on. This can lead to limited outcomes perpetuating and even amplifying existing societal ignorance. It’s not enough to simply acknowledge the problem; we need proactive strategies to mitigate these biases,” McClure said.

Big Tech Rejoices

While McClure expressed his concerns over the plan, and CISOs generally seem at least cautiously optimistic, tech leaders have not hesitated to express their enthusiasm over Trump’s plan.

“Hewlett Packard Enterprise applauds the AI Action Plan released today by the Trump Administration. We are especially encouraged to see the emphasis placed on enhancing AI infrastructure and promoting American-made AI technology around the world. This is vital for maintaining America’s leadership in the global AI arena and ensuring that the United States continues to set the standard for innovation, security, and technological advancement,” wrote Antonio Neri, president and CEO HPE, in a LinkedIn post.

“The AI race is about the future of US economic power & national security. President Trump’s strong leadership on AI will help us keep our foot on the gas. We’re in the middle of a fierce competition with China for AI leadership. The White House’s AI Action Plan is a bold step to create the right regulatory environment for companies like ours to invest in America,” Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer at Meta, also posted to LinkedIn.

On stage at a tech industry event Wednesday, the chief executives of Nvidia and AMD also lavished praise on the plan, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“On the first day of his administration, he realized the importance of AI and he realized the importance of energy ... for the last, I don’t know how many years, energy production was vilified,” Nvidia’s president, co-founder and CEO, Jensen Huang said, according to WSJ’s report.

“For the U.S. to lead in AI, we have to run fast, and the AI action plan is a great way of just laying out all the various pieces that will be helpful for us to run fast,” AMD’s CEO Lisa Su said at the event.