President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he and a large group of leaders of artificial intelligence companies had signed a voluntary accord that will include internal and external reviews during a meeting at the White House aimed at addressing Americans' fears about the technology.
“I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters during an impromptu press conference outside the West Wing.
Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson met leading executives from top tech firms that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure, including data centres in communities across the country that have sparked grassroots, bipartisan opposition. The group included CEOs who have called for a slowdown in the development of the technology after several high-profile incidents where AI agents have gone rogue.
The accord, which Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social late Tuesday, opened the door to future regulation but focused on four voluntary steps for the companies to take.
Read more OpenAI cancels release of new artificial intelligence model over safety concerns
The accord said the companies would implement “robust internal controls,” partner with an “independent external auditor” to assess whether the controls were working, and set up a committee among each company's board of directors to evaluate reports from internal and external auditors.
“Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws and regulations,” the accord said.
Trump repeatedly praised the business executives for developing a technology that he said would produce “unbelievable growth." Investment in data centres and the accompanying computer equipment has accelerated the economy and boosted the stock market, which has swelled investment accounts for higher-income Americans and lifted their spending.
Yet there were some notes of caution Tuesday. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who has been one of the most outspoken voices calling for a slowdown in the development of AI, said “the technology has very real risks.”
"And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion,” Amodei said.
The accord was signed by Trump, Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk as founder of xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.
Trump suggested there would be about 10 people named to a committee to “watch over the whole enterprise” and said the accord would be “morally binding.” He also said he would name someone to oversee the agreement in coming days after consulting with industry.
Huang sat to Trump's right during a White House luncheon meeting, according to a seating chart the president posted on Truth Social. Musk sat to Trump's left.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump promised that the US government wouldn't limit the development of artificial intelligence or support calls for “guardrails” or other restrictions.
“I will never stifle the growth of a technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” Trump said at the unveiling of an AI chatbot, America.gov, intended to help Americans navigate government services. “We can't stifle it, and we're leading by a lot.”
The unveiling of the AI government chatbot occurred at a daylong event in Washington during which multiple Trump administration officials celebrated a “Golden Age” fuelled by what Trump insists on calling “super intelligence," rather than artificial intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted that the chatbot at America.gov could soon be used to apply for a first-time passport fully online, without an in-person visit to a processing centre that is currently required.
Trump also said the executives had agreed to assuage the bipartisan opposition to data centres cropping up in local communities across the country, by providing more financial support to local schools or taking steps to reduce energy costs.
“You're going to see, data centres are going to be very popular," Trump said. If the opposition continued, Trump suggested, “they'll be forced to go overseas or other locations.”
Also Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a television interview that the company is increasingly focused on safety. The day before, his company halted the rollout of a new model over safety concerns.
“We are pacing our progress, which includes sometimes not training a model,” he said on CNBC. “We have to do these in a way where we can make very confident safety cases and claims, so that people don't have a bunch of anxiety.”
For his part, Trump on Tuesday portrayed the race to develop AI as largely a global competition between the United States and China, with the US in the lead. He said there would be a winner and a loser, with no “second place.”
The two countries agreed last week to establish a channel for handling AI-related incidents during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington. But Trump underscored Tuesday that he didn't want to cooperate too much with China: "I didn't want to do anything, because we're leading. Why would I want to do anything?”
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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