Real.Good.News.

By Julian Sterling, Senior Anthropological Correspondent
January 17, 2026

In 2026, the United States has officially pivoted from “encouraging” Artificial Intelligence to effectively mandating its presence in the gears of the Republic. Following the December 2025 signing of the executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” the federal government has signaled that AI is no longer a luxury—it is a mandatory component of national survival. While European nations are busy building “Digital Fortresses” to keep AI at bay, the U.S. has decided that the only way to avoid being outpaced by global rivals is to weave the algorithm into the very fabric of American life. 

The factual shift is most visible in the federal sector, where the “Unbiased AI” Principles now dictate that any agency procuring high-level software must ensure its models are “truth-seeking” and free from ideological “DEI” interference. It is a satirical irony of our age: we are so worried about human bias that we have legally mandated that we trust the “objectivity” of a machine—provided that machine has been approved by a DOJ AI Litigation Task Force. We have entered the era of “Mandatory Innovation,” where the failure to integrate AI is increasingly viewed as a form of administrative negligence. 

Beyond the beltway, the mandate is more subtle but equally forceful. Through the Genesis Mission launched in late 2025, the U.S. is integrating massive federal datasets and supercomputers into a unified platform for advanced manufacturing and biotechnology. For the average citizen, the mandate arrives via the “Broadband Blockade”: states that attempt to pass “onerous” AI regulations—like Colorado’s 2026 law targeting algorithmic discrimination—now risk losing billions in federal BEAD funding. We aren’t being forced to use AI by a police officer; we are being nudged into it by a federal government that has made “AI-free living” a prohibitively expensive choice.