Trump says AI industry will self-regulate after White House tech luncheon

President Donald Trump told reporters after a White House luncheon that he had signed a "morally binding" agreement with leading technology executives on artificial intelligence self-regulation. He said the administration is considering creating a ten-person committee to oversee the industry and noted that existing law-enforcement agencies already provide regulatory oversight.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson described the agreement as a set of voluntary principles for the sector and said the White House would continue to guide AI development.

Trump emphasized the importance of self-policing, stating, "There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation, and we automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that. But the self-regulation is very important." He also praised data centers as "very positive" despite criticism of their expansion.

Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su said she was "very encouraged" by the meeting, noting a sense of optimism and responsibility among participants. She added, "At the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to show the power of the technology as well as ensure that it’s very safe."

Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC that all parties must take responsibility for known AI risks and that the public does not want separate rules for tech companies and citizens.

The luncheon was attended by CEOs including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, among others. The event coincided with the launch of a new AI-powered chatbot for government websites.