US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that leading technology executives had signed a “morally binding” commitment to strengthen safeguards around artificial intelligence, though the agreement carries no legal enforcement mechanism.
The pledge followed a White House meeting attended by some of the biggest names in the AI industry, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
“They’re going to police themselves,” Trump told reporters after the meeting.
Trump said the agreement puts the companies’ commitment to AI safety and self-regulation in writing while stopping short of creating legally enforceable obligations.
He also said he would refer to the technology as “super intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence, arguing that the systems are no longer simply “artificial.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the agreement is intended to reassure users that AI systems operate as companies intend. He said the commitment includes “robust internal controls” as well as several layers of auditing, ranging from internal risk assessments to independent external reviews and oversight by company boards.
Zuckerberg described the pledge as an initial step towards establishing broader industry standards.
The White House gathering also included Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Of the 31 attendees, two were women — Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
Growing Debate Over AI Regulation
The meeting came amid increasing concern in Washington over the rapid development of AI and its potential impact on jobs and society. Lawmakers are facing growing pressure to establish stronger safeguards around increasingly capable AI systems.
Recent incidents involving autonomous AI systems have added to those concerns. OpenAI also announced that it was delaying the release of its latest model, Astra 6.1, after internal testing reportedly found that it did not meet the company’s safety standards.
Trump, who has received advice on AI policy from Huang and former AI czar David Sacks, has generally supported rapid development of the technology as part of the US effort to compete with China and expand AI-driven economic growth.
Data Centres Become Political Flashpoint
The rapid expansion of AI has also intensified debate over data centres, which require enormous amounts of computing power, electricity and water.
Communities in several parts of the US have raised concerns about higher electricity costs and the pressure that large data centres can place on local water and land resources. The issue has increasingly featured in political debates ahead of the November midterm elections.
Trump dismissed criticism of data-centre expansion and said AI companies would provide financial support to communities that host their facilities.
“They’ll help with their schools, they’ll help with their teachers,” he said.
AI Companies Warn About Safety Risks
Major AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, have themselves issued warnings about the potential risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems while continuing to develop and deploy the technology.
The debate intensified after a former employee associated with both companies publicly argued that AI development was advancing faster than safety reviews could keep pace.
Anthropic has also warned investors about potential risks to humanity from increasingly advanced AI systems, according to a Financial Times report. The company is reportedly considering an initial public offering as early as November.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed warnings about existential AI risks as exaggerated.
Congress Faces Limited Time
With the November midterm elections approaching, lawmakers from both parties have introduced proposals aimed at strengthening AI oversight. Some measures would require technology companies to provide greater transparency about how their systems operate and the safeguards used to manage risks.
However, the House is scheduled to remain in recess until early November, while senators are expected to return to their home states for campaigning. As a result, major federal AI legislation is unlikely to advance before the elections.
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