Trump calls in AI chiefs, rules out new regulations in favor of self-policing

Despite warnings about the possibility of AI systems escaping human control entirely, US President Donald Trump has ruled out introducing new government or congressional regulations, leaving the industry to police itself.

Trump made the remarks Tuesday (local time) after hosting the CEOs of major American AI companies for lunch at the White House. "I have a belief that there has to be a tremendous amount of self-regulation," he told reporters.

He added that regulation was already happening automatically through the Justice Department, the FBI and other agencies, but that self-regulation was "very important."

The comments suggested the lunch had produced a consensus that AI self-regulation, combined with government enforcement of existing laws against violators, would be sufficient to protect humanity from the potential risks posed by the technology — even as some have called for federal intervention to rein in the pace of AI development amid fears of an existential threat.

Bloomberg noted that Trump shrugged off proposals for new federal regulations after meeting with industry CEOs at the White House, even as global concern grows over the threats posed by AI.

Trump said a statement summarizing the outcomes of the meeting would be released shortly, and praised the AI executives in attendance, saying they "have a love for our country and want to do the right thing" and are "people that love our country."

He described the lunch as "very good, productive and an extremely friendly meeting," adding that "there was a lot in common in that room — it was really amazing and all good." He said the one thing everyone shared was "a love of our country and the world, and wanting this to be a safe place," and that what was discussed Wednesday would "make this a better and much safer place."

The remarks were widely read as signaling that Trump and the AI executives had agreed to produce a document pledging a framework for AI self-regulation.

Reuters reported that Trump said after the lunch that "an AI document has been signed, and it's a form of protection," adding that he believed the document was "morally binding." House Speaker Mike Johnson, who also attended the lunch, said the AI CEOs had signed an "accord" on AI standards, Reuters reported.

With midterm elections approaching and public frustration over AI data center construction mounting in local communities, Trump said the executives "are people that love their communities" and pledged that they "will work with communities on data centers and try to make communities happy."

He said that could mean supplying oil and gas, providing education, or offering financial support to teachers or residents, and that the executives "agreed that this is very positive — so data centers are going to be very popular."

Trump doubled down on the industry's potential, saying, "We are ahead, and we're going to stay that way."

Trump also announced he would sign an executive order around 5 p.m. Eastern time that day renaming "artificial intelligence" as "superintelligence."

The lunch drew a who's who of the AI world. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sat to Trump's right as he addressed reporters, while Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and xAI, sat to his left; House Speaker Johnson and AMD CEO Lisa Su stood behind them. Also present were Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — one of the earliest voices calling for a slowdown in AI development — along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.