The US calls high-quality data a national strategic asset
America's AI Action Plan asks for the world's largest AI-ready scientific data sets, and for federally funded researchers to disclose the data their AI uses.
Picture made for ABUREAU.
On 23 July 2025 the White House published America’s AI Action Plan. Its section on scientific data opens bluntly: "High-quality data has become a national strategic asset".
The plan says the United States must lead in creating the largest and highest-quality AI-ready scientific data sets, while respecting individual rights, privacy and confidentiality. Among its actions: minimum quality standards for biological, materials, chemical and physical data used in AI training, easier secure access to federal data, credit in grant reviews for researchers who release useful data sets, and a requirement that federally funded researchers disclose the non-sensitive data sets their AI models use.
Governments now talk about data the way they once talked about energy or minerals. For anyone holding well-kept scientific, industrial or operating data, that raises its standing. It is the kind of material national programmes are trying to build, and building it takes years.