President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he and a large group of business leaders artificial intelligence (AI) They signed a voluntary agreement that will include internal and external reviews during a meeting at the White House aimed at addressing Americans’ fears about this technology.
“I think I’m seeing extraordinary self-regulation. And they understand that they have to self-regulateTrump told reporters during an impromptu news conference outside the West Wing.
Trump and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Johnsonmet with senior executives from major technology companies that are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand the AI infrastructureincluding data centers in communities across the country that have sparked bipartisan opposition at the local level.
The agreement was signed by Trump; the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei; the CEO of GoogleSundar Pichai; the executive director of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg; the president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang; and Elon Muskfounder of xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.
The agreement, which Trump published Tuesday night on his social network, Truth Social, opened the door to future regulation, but focused on four voluntary measures that companies must adopt.
The document states that companies will implement “robust internal controls,” work with an “independent external auditor” to evaluate whether those controls are working, and create a committee within each company’s board of directors to evaluate the internal and external auditors’ reports.
“Over time, it may make sense to turn these steps into laws and regulations,” the agreement notes.
Trump repeatedly praised business executives for developing technology that he said will generate “incredible growth.” Investment in data centers and associated computing equipment has accelerated the economy and strengthened the stock market, boosting the investment accounts of higher-income Americans and boosting their spending.
However, there were also some expressions of caution on Tuesday. Amodei, who has been one of the most critical voices in favor of slowing down the development of the AIsaid: “Technology has very real risks.”
“And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks, is still under discussion.”Amodei added.
1 / 14 | Trump and Xi Jinping’s exclusive dinner that brought together influential billionaires. The state dinner convened by Trump in honor of the president of China, Xi Jingping, was loaded with celebrities, technology giants and prominent billionaires in the United States. – Yuri Gripas – Pool via CNP / POOL
The commitment to self-regulation of AI
Trump suggested that about 10 people would be appointed to a committee that will “oversee the entire enterprise” and said the deal would be “morally binding.” He also indicated that he would appoint a person to oversee the deal in the coming days, after consulting with the industry.
Some of the measures described in the agreement are actions that these companies are already implementing in some way or that they had previously committed to adopt.
The intent of the agreement is to balance the freedom needed for innovation with regulation, said Shri Narayanan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California. This innovation is not limited to improving the capabilities of the AINarayanan explained, but also includes efforts to improve their safety and security.
Other experts are skeptical about placing “so much faith in self-regulation,” such as Robin Jia, associate professor of computer science at the University of Southern California. Jia noted that it is crucial to ensure that the intentions of the major laboratories of artificial intelligence are “well aligned with the general interest of the American public.” He also mentioned recent revelations about hacking incidents and warned that as models improve, the consequences of these types of incidents will be greater.
Some also questioned the agreement’s broad, non-specific language. Alex Pascal, executive director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, argued that “the only way to reduce the risks and harms of AI for Americans it is through strong legal accountability, regulation, and a fundamental shift in the competitive dynamics that are driving unsafe decisions by cutting-edge AI developers, the costs of which are borne by the American people.”
Trump unveils chatbot to help Americans navigate government services
Huang sat to Trump’s right during a White House lunch, according to a seating chart posted by the president on Truth Social. Musk sat to Trump’s left.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump pledged that the U.S. government would not limit the development of artificial intelligence or support calls for “barriers” or other restrictions.
“I will never stop the growth of a technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution“Trump said during the presentation of a AI chatbot called America.gov, designed to help Americans navigate government services. “We can’t stop it and we are leading by a lot.”
The presentation of the government chatbot AI It occurred during a daylong event in Washington, where several Trump administration officials celebrated a “Golden Age” powered by what Trump insists on calling “superintelligence,” rather than artificial intelligence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that the America.gov chatbot could soon be used to apply entirely online for a passport for the first time, without the in-person visit to a processing center that is currently required.
Trump thinks data centers will become “very popular”
Trump also said the executives had agreed to try to reduce the bipartisan opposition to data centers springing up in local communities across the country, through increased financial support for local schools or measures to reduce energy costs.
“You’re going to see that data centers are going to be very popular,” Trump said. If the opposition continued, he suggested that “they will be forced to go abroad or to other places.”
Also on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a television interview that the company is increasingly focused on security. A day earlier, his company halted the launch of a new model due to safety concerns.
“We are pacing our progress, which sometimes includes not training a model“he said on CNBC.”We have to do this in a way that allows us to present security arguments and guarantees with a lot of confidence, so that people don’t have as much anxiety”.
For his part, Trump on Tuesday described the race to develop AI as a global competition mainly 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 to handle incidents related to artificial intelligence during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington. But Trump emphasized 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?”
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.