Trump, Johnson to meet with AI execs at White House amid debate over safety

President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson are set to sit down with top executives from major artificial intelligence companies at the White House on Tuesday, as Washington grapples with how to respond to the fast pace of AI development and warnings from within the industry about its dangers.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is expected to be among those in the East Room for the 12:30 p.m. gathering, according to a source with direct knowledge of his plans, as reported by CBS News. Company spokespeople confirmed that OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google chief Sundar Pichai and Palantir CEO Alex Karp will also take part. Sources familiar with the plans of Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia's Jensen Huang told CBS News both are expected to attend as well.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, previewed the session Monday in an interview with Fox Business, saying the goal is to strike the "right balance" between encouraging innovation and imposing oversight. He argued against reflexively burdening the sector with heavy regulation, suggesting doing so could carry national security consequences, while stressing that Tuesday's talks should help guide lawmakers toward that balance.

The meeting follows a private dinner Trump held with Amodei on Sunday. The Anthropic chief has been vocal in urging the government to put safeguards in place around AI development, a position Trump has largely resisted. Before that dinner, Trump indicated that potential regulations would be part of their conversation.

Several of the executives expected at Tuesday's meeting also attended last week's state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping, an event that drew other tech leaders, including OpenAI's Sam Altman, according to CBS News.

The gathering highlights a divide within the AI industry itself. Companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI have pushed for limits on how quickly the technology advances, citing the need to manage risks that some describe as potentially catastrophic. Other figures, including Nvidia's Huang, have dismissed those concerns as overstated, warning that added restrictions could cost the United States its technological advantage over China.

Trump has repeatedly rejected calls to slow AI progress, at one point describing safety concerns as a "hoax." Earlier this month, he said he was exploring the creation of a federal "AI force."

Not everyone in Republican leadership plans to be in the room. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota told reporters at the Capitol on Monday that he would skip the White House meeting, though he said he hoped it proves productive. Thune noted that he expects to hold his own meetings with some of the same industry figures later in the week, and he met separately with Amodei at the Capitol on Monday.

CBS News also reported that a number of tech executives are scheduled to attend a separate Washington event Tuesday where AI policy, among other issues, is expected to come up. Trump is anticipated to speak at that gathering and to introduce a new online portal for federal government services, according to a White House official.