Trump rejects federal regulation of artificial intelligence: backs industry self-regulation

U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the idea of new federal rules for artificial intelligence after Tuesday’s meeting at the White House with the industry’s top executives, giving open support to the companies’ self-regulation. During an appearance before reporters in the East Room, he said there is a belief that there should be “extraordinary self-regulation” and that existing laws — with the Justice Department and the FBI — are enough to protect Americans from the technology’s possible risks, according to Bloomberg’s reporting.

The meeting, attended by about two dozen Silicon Valley executives — among them Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and executives from Meta, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and xAI — ended with a one-page document titled “The White House Agreement on Super-Intelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities”, signed by the president and six of the chief executives. House Speaker Mike Johnson described the document as a series of voluntary “commitments” to strong internal controls and layers of internal and external review, including partnerships with external auditors for model safety assessments.

Trump’s statements dampened expectations that the administration might move from its rigid opposition to new government safety measures. In an unexpected appearance before reporters at the entrance to the West Wing after the meeting, he also announced the idea of a “commission” of about 10 people that would help “oversee the whole enterprise”, without giving further details.

Industry leaders broadly backed the president’s desire for a hands-off approach and for AI companies to be left to regulate themselves. Huang, whose company makes the chips that have fuelled the AI boom, said he saw “no conflict between innovation, technology and safety”, adding that, a day after Nvidia unveiled new software safety tools designed to keep AI agents away from unauthorised actions, companies are creating “new technologies to advance AI safety”.

The debate over artificial intelligence safety is causing Trump a political dilemma: he is one of the loudest defenders of the technology’s unimpeded development as a key to beating China and sustaining the American economy, but polls show Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about the risks — from job losses and electricity costs to cyberattacks — with November’s midterm elections approaching. Johnson acknowledged that Congress would “potentially” have to put safeguards in place, but warned it would take “some time” to draft legislation with broad support.