Trump, AI Executives Sign Voluntary Safety Accord at White House

President Donald Trump hosted leading artificial intelligence executives at the White House on Tuesday for a strategy session on managing AI safety without federal mandates, and said the group had signed a voluntary accord covering internal and external reviews.

Speaking to reporters on the White House driveway after a lunch meeting, Trump said the agreement was "morally binding" and described it as a form of protection. He said the executives had come together to do something that few people could, comparing the document to a constitution.

"I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police," Trump said during the impromptu press conference outside the West Wing.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson met executives from major technology firms that are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI infrastructure, including data centres in communities across the country that have drawn grassroots, bipartisan opposition.

The group included chief executives who have called for a slowdown in the development of the technology after several high-profile incidents in which AI agents went rogue. Trump repeatedly praised the executives for developing a technology he said would produce "unbelievable growth." Investment in data centres and accompanying computer equipment has accelerated the economy and boosted the stock market, swelling investment accounts for higher-income Americans and lifting their spending.

There were notes of caution. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic and one of the most outspoken voices calling for a slowdown in AI development, said the technology carried "very real risks."

"And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion," Amodei said, adding that the industry needed to work together to "win safe."

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent Meta, said the accord included "a set of principles and commitments around building robust internal controls and detecting if there are any issues with the technology, coupled with multiple layers of auditing and controls."

"We're going to have all of our boards of directors independently review the reports that come from the auditors," said Zuckerberg, who has distanced his company from calls for a slowdown in AI.

Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said there was no conflict between innovation and safety, and that the industry was developing new technologies to advance both the capabilities and the safety of AI.

Trump suggested there would be about 10 people named to a committee to "watch over the whole enterprise." He said a bad actor would be caught, pointing to the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA, and highlighted medical advances as a positive use of the technology.