Trump signs self-policing AI accord with tech execs
Courtney Rozen and Steve Holland and Alexandra Alper |
US President Donald Trump says tech executives have agreed to establish standards for artificial intelligence and has reiterated his support for the rapid expansion of data centres, as concerns mount over AI safety and the industry’s growing footprint in communities.
Trump released an accord document on AI, signed by him and the bosses of Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, social media platform X and NVIDIA, during a meeting in Washington.
“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 on Tuesday.
The accord asks companies to partner with an external auditor or evaluator to carry out independent assessments of whether a company’s AI control and monitoring systems are operating as intended.
It urges companies to designate an independent committee of the board of directors to oversee and receive reports from internal and external auditors and from teams operating AI controls.
It asks for internal controls to monitor capabilities and alignment of AI models during training and deployment around areas like cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats to ensure models “do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways”.
The accord also asks companies to have an internal team to ensure “all of the controls, monitoring and detection are operating as intended”.
“Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations. Regardless of whether this is required of companies, we believe that implementing these controls and audits is critical to ensuring a safe future for everyone, and each of our companies are committed to doing this,” the accord said.
“The participating companies will meet regularly to establish standards and best practices to improve the safety of their systems,” it added.
The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny over the risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence, after OpenAI and Anthropic reported their AI agents had gone rogue and hacked into other companies’ systems.
Data centres, which provide the computing power needed to train and run AI models, have drawn opposition in communities nationwide over concerns about electricity demand, utility costs and other local impacts.
The backlash poses a political challenge for Republicans heading into the US midterm elections on November 3.
What began as a closed-door lunch with technology executives spilled into public view when Trump joined House Speaker Mike Johnson and a lineup of CEOs on the White House driveway, an area rarely used by the president.
He took questions for about 30 with the CEOs standing shoulder to shoulder behind him.
The unusual scene came as pressure has mounted on the administration to address the risks and rapid spread of AI, and underscored the alliance Trump has cultivated with leaders of the tech industry.
The accord, which Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social opens the door to future regulation but focused on four voluntary steps for the companies to take.
Executives at the meeting included OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.
Zuckerberg, pulled forward from the crowd of billionaire executives by Trump to speak, said that the companies agreed to develop “robust internal controls” for their AI systems, adding auditors would check those procedures and report back to company boards.
Trump said he is considering setting up a 10-person board to police the safety of AI tools, without specifying who would make up that group.
Trump said tech companies would work to make communities “happy” about the construction of data centres.
Data centres are “going to do things for the community that will be really financially beneficial”, he said.
“These big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities.”
with AP
Reuters