President Donald Trump has announced that leaders of the world's largest AI companies have signed an accord to 'self-police' the technology. The deal includes internal and external reviews, Trump said during a meeting at the White House aimed at addressing Americans' fears about the technology. He also claimed data centres will become 'very popular' in the future.
Accord details and signatories
The accord, which Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social late Tuesday, opened the door to future regulation but focused on four voluntary steps for the companies to take. The accord said the companies would implement "robust internal controls," partner with an "independent external auditor" to assess whether the controls were working, and set up a committee among 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. 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 as founder of xAI, which is now part of SpaceX.
Concerns and cautions
The deal comes after AI companies have faced questions over the safety of the technology, as the 'Godfather of AI' said earlier this month there was 'a 10 percent chance' it could wipe out humanity in the next decade. Trump told reporters during an impromptu press conference outside the West Wing: "I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police."
Yet there were some notes of caution on Tuesday. Amodei, who has been one of the most outspoken voices calling for a slowdown in the development of AI, said "the technology has very real risks." "And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion," Amodei said.
Data centres and opposition
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."
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. Trump suggested there would be about 10 people 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.
Global competition and safety measures
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump promised that the US government would not 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."
Also Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a television interview that the company is increasingly focused on safety. The day before, his company halted the rollout of a new model over safety concerns. "We are pacing our progress, which includes sometimes not training a model," he said on CNBC. "We have to do these in a way where we can make very confident safety cases and claims, so that people don't have a bunch of anxiety."
Trump portrayed the race to develop AI as largely a global competition between the United States and China, with the U.S. in the lead. 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 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?"
