After Trump meeting with tech leaders, AI safety in more chaotic state

After President Donald Trump’s lunch with AI leaders on Tuesday, the leading artificial intelligence companies are right where they were before: policing themselves.

Trump hosted top execs from Alphabet, Meta, SpaceX, Nvidia, Palantir, Anthropic, OpenAI and other companies following a three-week stretch during which the topic of AI safety turned into an intense nationwide debate, with leading industry researchers and executives warning of the extreme threats posed by the most powerful models.

But while the concerns voiced this month by the likes of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have led many policymakers and industry experts to demand government regulation, Trump has steadfastly opposed any such moves, and called AI fears a “hoax.”

On Tuesday, Trump brought leaders to the White House to sign a two-page document that he shared on his Truth Social account. It was titled, “White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities.”

The document says that the group believes “every company is responsible for developing its own technology safely and in a way that builds trust with customers and the public.” Signatories included some of the same people who have been insisting that, in the absence of a coordinated safety effort, their technology can’t be trusted.

“You saw two weeks ago almost all those same CEOs say they should be regulated,” said Bradley Tusk, CEO of Tusk Ventures, in an interview on CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” on Tuesday. “It’s not because they fundamentally believe in the power of the state. They want something that creates an equalizer for each other.”

The four action items in the document call for each company to establish “robust” internal monitoring of models, have an internal team that ensures the controls are working, partner with outside auditors or evaluators, and designate an independent committee of the board to oversee the internal team.

“Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations,” the last paragraph begins. When asked by reporters outside the White House if the rules are binding, Trump said they’re “morally binding.”

Trump wasn’t just holding the event to promote the new accord. Separately, he said he signed a document purporting to “officially” change the name of AI to “super intelligence,” trying to push through a rebrand after crowdsourcing a new name on social media last week.