The Trump administration released a new artificial intelligence blueprint that aims to loosen environmental rules and vastly expand AI exports to allies, in a bid to maintain the American edge over China in the critical technology.
Artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare — and if we can align government policies to support this progress, it will save lives, lower costs and preserve America’s innovation leadership in an increasingly competitive and high-stakes global tech race.
AI-enabled technologies are improving how we diagnose disease, personalize treatment and expand access to care. AI-powered ultrasound systems allow clinicians to capture MRI-quality images at a fraction of the price. AI is helping emergency teams detect strokes in real time, dramatically improving recovery outcomes. The latest monitoring devices help patients identify cardiac abnormalities before symptoms emerge. For pharmaceuticals, AI is revolutionizing research and development, quickly discovering new medications and bringing them to market faster than ever.
America and New York must continue to lead
As AI evolves rapidly, we must ensure the U.S. remains at the head of the pack. Foreign adversaries like China are executing long-term strategies to dominate in emerging technologies — investing heavily in AI and quantum computing while embedding those capabilities in strategic sectors around the globe. At the same time, shortsighted policy decisions coming from Washington, Albany and statehouses throughout the country threaten to drive our top scientific talent overseas and burden our leading innovators with a web of regulations they can’t afford to navigate.
American leadership in developing life-saving therapies and devices is paramount. Future advancements in healthcare AI will be determined not just by breakthroughs and ingenuity but by policy decisions that either empower innovators or hold them back.
Fortunately, we have a strong starting point. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has regulated AI-enabled medical devices for more than 25 years and has authorized more than 1,000 such technologies. These include devices that detect maternal hemorrhage, cardiac monitors that minimize false alarms and autonomous diagnostic systems that help screen for diabetic retinopathy. The FDA’s regulatory structure provides developers and device manufacturers with the agility necessary to keep pace with innovation while maintaining patient safety.
What we need now is smart policymaking that builds on this success — not broad mandates that hold new technologies hostage. Proposals to shift oversight to third parties, for instance, risk duplicating the FDA’s work, raising security and IP concerns, and delaying patient access to lifesaving tools. Similarly, imposing costly compliance regimes and poorly designed liability schemes that expose manufacturers to speculative lawsuits are likely to keep new solutions from coming online, entrench incumbents and sideline promising startups.
To lead, we must invest in what makes our innovation ecosystem work: a stable and predictable legal environment, access to capital, a resilient supply chain, and a deep bench of technical and entrepreneurial talent. These are the conditions that allow breakthroughs to scale rapidly. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pioneering Empire AI consortium is providing a blueprint for leveraging shared infrastructure and academic resources to promote AI research and development. Unfortunately, decisions coming from the White House that chase researchers to other countries and a slate of bills introduced or passed in states like New York have the potential to dismantle this progress.
In addition to avoiding missteps, it’s also essential to modernize the law to allow access to high-quality data. Developers need large, diverse, and representative datasets to build accurate, bias-mitigated AI models. Yet data remains siloed, standards are inconsistent and HIPAA-era rules can inhibit the sharing of anonymized health information — even when patient privacy is fully protected. It’s time for Washington to revisit these regulations and ensure our laws protect sensitive health data without undermining the development of new devices and AI solutions.
New York must defend its position as a global hub for science
New York is a global hub for life sciences and medical technologies. But if we want to continue to compete — especially against geopolitical adversaries dead set on surpassing the U.S. and investing trillions — then we need to act with equal urgency and clarity.
While there’s no single lever that will secure America’s leadership in medical AI, we have the right roadmap. It combines sustained investment, clear rules, smart incentives and a shared understanding that our global competitiveness now runs through our technological edge. In this race, success will belong not just to the most advanced nation, but to the one most committed to building an environment where ideas thrive.
To unleash the next wave of healthcare breakthroughs, policies at all levels of government must support innovation, not create bottlenecks and roadblocks. Patients are depending on it.
Winthrop “Win” Thurlow is executive director at LifeSciencesNY, a membership organization that serves as an advocate for New York’s medical device and life sciences industry. The organization’s members include startups, established multinationals and universities.
