Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou met with President Donald Trump Wednesday about Foxconn's plans to build an LCD fab in Wisconsin, said the White House Thursday. The company “is spending a lot of money in Wisconsin and soon will announce even more investment there,” it said. Gao and Trump didn’t discuss support for Gao’s campaign for the Taiwanese presidency, it said. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) said last month he wants to renegotiate Foxconn’s contract to build a downsized fab because the “deal that was struck” under then-Gov. Scott Walker (R) “is no longer in play” (see 1904190038). “In meetings today with state and local representatives," Gou "continued to build upon the relationships he feels are necessary to the company’s success in Wisconsin,” emailed Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Secretary-CEO Mark Hogan Thursday when asked for comment about the White House reference to additional investments coming. Hogan's group negotiated the Foxconn contract on the state's behalf 17 months ago (see 1711130014).
Comments are due May 31 on a National Institute of Standards and Technology request for information on developing technical standards for artificial intelligence, said Wednesday's Federal Register. A February executive order directs NIST to create a plan for federal engagement in developing technical standards. The agency said it will consult with federal agencies, the private sector, academia, nongovernmental entities and other stakeholders.
“Substantive progress” is being made in “high-level” trade talks between China and the U.S., said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wednesday. “We are keeping in contact with each other.” The Chinese and U.S. teams “will continue to meet each other halfway and work together for a mutually beneficial agreement,” he said. President Donald Trump will dispatch U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to Beijing for “continued negotiations” that begin April 30 on a trade deal, said the White House Tuesday. Vice Premier Liu He, who will lead the talks for China, will then head a Chinese delegation to Washington for additional talks starting May 8, it said. “The subjects of next week’s discussions will cover trade issues including intellectual property, forced technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, purchases, and enforcement.”
The Trump administration recognizes the need for “striking the balance of an open research environment and safeguarding American assets and intellectual property,” Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier wrote Tuesday. He noted “cutting-edge technologies” are shaping American jobs: “The American free market system is unmatched in pushing the boundaries of science and technology, and our continued global leadership is dependent upon removing obstacles to achieve our full potential.”
President Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai are expected to make a joint announcement Friday clarifying that the U.S. isn't headed toward a nationalized 5G network, industry and government officials said. Trump is also expected to discuss the push to deploy 5G in rural areas. Details were still emerging at our deadline. Trump has been working to associate himself with 5G and a U.S. win. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told a CTIA event last week the U.S. definitely isn't losing the race to 5G (see 1904040048). Earlier in the week, CTIA said the U.S. is catching up with China (see 1904020004). The FCC and the White House didn’t comment.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., separately said Thursday they plan to talk with President Donald Trump's administration in the coming weeks about infrastructure funding in a bid to revive interest in enacting a comprehensive bill to allocate up to $2 trillion for broadband and other projects. Trump sought in his February State of the Union for Congress to “unite for a great rebuilding of America's crumbling infrastructure” (see 1902060002). In 2018, he called for a bill “that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment” that relied heavily on public-private partnerships, though that effort stalled (see 1803290046). The communications sector has been hopeful there will be more appetite for infrastructure legislation this year because Democrats regained the majority in the House in the 2018 election (see 1811130011). Schumer told reporters he and Pelosi will meet with Trump in the coming weeks. They will warn Trump that “if [the administration is] not going to put real money and have real labor and environmental protections” in a final bill, “we're not going to get anywhere,” Schumer said. Legislation needs to provide “at least $1 trillion” in funding, but “I'd like it to be closer to $2 trillion,” Pelosi said at a House Democratic retreat in Leesburg, Virginia. Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray of Washington led filing of the Digital Equity Act, which would allocate federal funding for digital inclusion projects. Many tech stakeholders immediately praised it.
President Donald Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to deliver a report on online trafficking of counterfeit and pirated goods. Due in about 200 days, it's aimed at gaining a better understanding of how online third-party marketplaces and other third-party intermediaries facilitate illegal activity, their origins and what goods are trafficked. Another goal is to “identify administrative, regulatory, legislative or policy changes that would enable agencies … to more effectively share information regarding counterfeit and pirated goods,” Trump said Wednesday.
The campaign of 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., released a “billion-dollar” infrastructure plan Thursday that in part proposed to “connect every household in America to the internet by 2022.” President Donald Trump made a generic call to Congress in February to pass infrastructure funding bill this year but didn't outline a specific legislative proposal. Trump in 2018 sought a bill “that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment” that relied heavily on public-private partnerships (see 1801310071). Trump's infrastructure push is a “mirage” that “leaves the details up to lawmakers,” Klobuchar's campaign wrote, announcing her proposal. Her plan would “help close the urban-rural divide by creating accurate broadband maps to identify areas that lack adequate access, focus on bringing high-speed internet infrastructure to areas most in need, and provide greater incentives for existing providers to use funds to upgrade their networks to cover unserved and underserved areas.” Klobuchar will meet Friday in Stanton, Iowa, “with local leaders to discuss needed investments in rural broadband,” as part of a tour of the state to highlight aspects of her infrastructure proposal, the campaign said.
The White House launched AI.gov, for artificial intelligence strategic documents, fact sheets and agency programs and other materials. The website, which debuted Tuesday, details “policy accomplishments and initiatives,” emphasizing four areas: “AI for American Innovation, AI for American Industry, AI for the American Worker, and AI with American Values.”
Without Communications Decency Act Section 230 protections, online media would “face an onslaught of bad-faith lawsuits” and pressure from the powerful to silence critics, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Tuesday. Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri claim tech companies have gotten off easily with liability protections. President Donald Trump accused Twitter, Facebook and Google of coordinated anti-conservative bias. There's "big discrimination" against conservative users and groups, he said during a Tuesday joint news conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. "It’s collusive, and it’s very, very fair to say that we have to do something about it," Trump said. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is suing Twitter for alleged defamation and negligence, citing accounts sharing critical and insulting content about him. Calls to alter Section 230 also have come since the New Zealand mass shooting. “Tech companies certainly need to continue to be far more vigorous about identifying, fingerprinting and blocking content and individuals who incite hate and violence,” Wyden said. But he warned that forcing tech companies to intervene could have First Amendment consequences.