President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that tech leaders signed a “constitution” to police themselves on artificial intelligence. The signing followed a meeting at the White House on September 29.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the accord is voluntary for AI companies. When asked if the deal is binding, Trump said it is “morally” binding.
The meeting came as some AI leaders have warned about the risks of the technology. Some have called for steps to slow AI down before it becomes smarter than humans.
Who Attended the White House Meeting
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai attended. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman were also there.
Palantir’s Alex Karp and Shyam Sankar joined the group, along with Johnson and members of Trump’s Cabinet.
Johnson said the leaders signed a document called “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.”
He described it as a statement of principles and voluntary commitments. He said it calls for “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review.”
What the Accord Says
Trump later shared a screenshot of the accord, which offers few details. It says the signers “believe” each AI company “should implement” a series of controls and audits.
The document says each company is responsible for making sure its technology “builds trust with customers and the public.” It also states that the steps are not formal laws, but it leaves that option open for the future.
OpenAI and Anthropic recently committed to using third-party evaluators. It is not clear if the accord asks them to do anything new.
Zuckerberg called the agreement “a start.” He said company boards would independently review reports from auditors.
Johnson said Congress would “continue to guide the industry’s development in a safe manner.” He did not announce any plan by Congress to enforce the principles.
Trump said a “committee” of perhaps 10 people could watch over the industry. It is unclear who would serve on it or whether its decisions would be binding.
A reporter asked why stricter rules were not needed. Trump said the AI CEOs “love” America and are “the smartest people in the world.”
Trump has opposed regulations that could slow AI growth. Last week at the United Nations General Assembly, he said the U.S. “rejects” a global effort to regulate AI.
Johnson said the U.S. cannot pause AI development because it would lose its edge to China. On Monday, he told Fox Business that fears about AI are “a Chinese psyop.”
Many of the same executives attended a White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping last week. Amodei also had dinner with Trump on Sunday night.
ABC News has asked the White House for an official copy of the accord. For now, the screenshot Trump shared is the main public look at the document.
