US President Donald Trump said that he and a large group of leaders of artificial intelligence companies signed a voluntary accord on Tuesday that will include internal and external reviews during a meeting aimed at addressing Americans' fears about the technology and its risks on humanity.
“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 US House Speaker Mike Johnson met with leading executives from top tech and AI firms at the White House that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure, including data centres in communities across the country, which have sparked grassroots, bipartisan opposition.
The accord was signed by Trump, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI – now part of SpaceX.
The accord, which Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, late on Tuesday, opened the door to future regulation but focused on four voluntary steps for the companies to take.
It said the companies would implement “robust internal controls,” partner with an “independent external auditor” to assess whether the controls are working, and establish a committee within 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. Amodei, who has been one of the most outspoken voices calling for a slowdown in AI development, said, “The technology has very real risks.”
“And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion,” he added.
Trump suggested that about 10 people would be 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.
Some of the actions outlined in the accord are measures these companies are already taking in some form or have previously committed to doing.
The accord however does not introduce a set of legislation that introduces robust legal liability and regulation to guide the technology, which some in the industry have blown the whistle on, saying there is a chance it could outsmart humans and cause their extinction within a decade.
Trump, who has always vocally opposed instating such measures, said before the meeting 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.”
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.”
Trump on Tuesday portrayed the race to develop AI as largely a global competition between the United States and China. 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 on 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?,” he said.
