US President Donald Trump and the chiefs of the country's biggest artificial intelligence companies have signed what Trump called a "morally binding" accord on developing AI safely, at a White House meeting on Tuesday.
"It's almost like a Constitution in a way, and the biggest people in the world signed that and I signed it as president and it really is a form of protection," Trump told reporters after the meeting.
The one-page document, titled the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities", was released on Truth Social. Six executives signed alongside Trump: Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Greg Brockman, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and xAI's Elon Musk.
Four layers of safeguards
The accord commits the firms to four layers of controls. Companies are asked to partner with an external auditor or evaluator for independent assessments of their AI control and monitoring systems, and to designate an independent committee of the board of directors to oversee and receive reports from internal and external auditors.
It also calls for internal controls to monitor the capabilities and alignment of AI models during training and deployment — around cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats — to ensure that models "do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways", plus a dedicated internal team to make sure all of the controls, monitoring and detection are operating as intended.
The participating companies will meet regularly to establish standards and best practices, the accord says, adding that "over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
A shift in tone
At a lunch with the executives in the East Room, Trump called for "tremendous self-regulation" of artificial intelligence, sitting between Zuckerberg and Huang, with Musk and Pichai on the other side. He later walked his guests onto the driveway outside the West Wing for a 33-minute impromptu press conference, asking Zuckerberg to explain the framework.
The tone marks a shift for a president who has argued the US does not need new AI-specific regulations — telling world leaders at the UN General Assembly last week that he "rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control" AI. Trump also said his administration was thinking about forming an oversight committee of about 10 people to "watch over the whole enterprise".
Sources: Reuters — Trump, tech executives sign 'morally binding' AI document; New York Post — Trump calls for 'tremendous self-regulation' as AI execs sign 'morally binding' pact at White House; https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...Trump sign new 'self-policing' AI accord[/url
"It's almost like a Constitution in a way, and the biggest people in the world signed that and I signed it as president and it really is a form of protection," Trump told reporters after the meeting.
The one-page document, titled the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities", was released on Truth Social. Six executives signed alongside Trump: Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Greg Brockman, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and xAI's Elon Musk.
Four layers of safeguards
The accord commits the firms to four layers of controls. Companies are asked to partner with an external auditor or evaluator for independent assessments of their AI control and monitoring systems, and to designate an independent committee of the board of directors to oversee and receive reports from internal and external auditors.
It also calls for internal controls to monitor the capabilities and alignment of AI models during training and deployment — around cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats — to ensure that models "do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways", plus a dedicated internal team to make sure all of the controls, monitoring and detection are operating as intended.
The participating companies will meet regularly to establish standards and best practices, the accord says, adding that "over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
A shift in tone
At a lunch with the executives in the East Room, Trump called for "tremendous self-regulation" of artificial intelligence, sitting between Zuckerberg and Huang, with Musk and Pichai on the other side. He later walked his guests onto the driveway outside the West Wing for a 33-minute impromptu press conference, asking Zuckerberg to explain the framework.
The tone marks a shift for a president who has argued the US does not need new AI-specific regulations — telling world leaders at the UN General Assembly last week that he "rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control" AI. Trump also said his administration was thinking about forming an oversight committee of about 10 people to "watch over the whole enterprise".
Sources: Reuters — Trump, tech executives sign 'morally binding' AI document; New York Post — Trump calls for 'tremendous self-regulation' as AI execs sign 'morally binding' pact at White House; https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...Trump sign new 'self-policing' AI accord[/url
