Trump convenes AI leaders at White House, signs self-regulation pact

President Donald Trump hosted a gathering of senior executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta and Google at the White House on Tuesday. After a closed-door session, the participants signed a voluntary agreement that obliges each company to monitor the safety of its own artificial-intelligence systems, implement safeguards, and cooperate with independent auditors. Trump said the pact resembles a "constitution" and announced plans for a board to oversee AI safety, though he did not name its members.

"The accord gives the American people and customers confidence that the technology works as intended," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

"It's a way to win safely," Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei added.

Critics noted the agreement leaves accountability and enforcement unclear. University of Sydney law professor Kimberlee Weatherall called the pact "deeply unimpressive" and warned it allows firms to define safety standards themselves. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University and the University of Melbourne expressed similar doubts about the effectiveness of self-regulation.

In a separate remarks, Trump reiterated support for rapid data-center construction, describing the facilities as "massive contributions to communities" and calling them "super intelligence factories" that will reindustrialise the United States, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Public opposition to new data-center sites remains high, with recent polling showing a majority of voters against local construction.

Trump also signed an executive order directing federal agencies to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "Super Intelligence" (SI). While some industry leaders have embraced the new label, experts said the terminology is unlikely to gain broad acceptance.