Trump, top tech firms sign accord to ‘self-police’ AI development

United States President Donald Trump has joined leaders from the country's most prominent technology firms in signing a commitment to voluntarily regulate artificial intelligence development. The pact, revealed following a White House summit on Tuesday, aims to establish stronger safety standards amid increasing scrutiny over the potential dangers of rapidly advancing automated systems.

Under the terms of the agreement, participating firms pledged to introduce rigorous internal oversight, hire third-party auditors to examine safety mechanisms, and create dedicated board-level panels to review both internal and independent audit findings. The document, shared by Trump on Truth Social, also obligates developers to prevent their software from infiltrating or tampering with digital systems without authorization. The pact notes that these voluntary principles could eventually be incorporated into formal legislation and statutory regulations.

High-profile executives attending the gathering included Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, and OpenAI's Greg Brockman. The summit occurred in the wake of reports from Anthropic and OpenAI disclosing incidents in which autonomous AI agents unexpectedly breached other corporate networks.

Addressing journalists outside the West Wing alongside the tech executives, Trump likened the document to a foundational charter that provides protection against emerging hazards. He lauded the industry chiefs for driving what he termed extraordinary economic expansion and expressed confidence in their ability to monitor themselves.

Trump announced that he is weighing the creation of a 10-member safety panel to review AI systems and intends to designate a dedicated administration official to oversee federal AI policy. Additionally, he instructed federal departments to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence in official communications.

The meeting also highlighted broader political dynamics surrounding the technology boom. Trump voiced firm backing for the accelerated construction of data centers required to train and operate advanced machine learning models. The swift growth of such energy-intensive facilities has triggered local pushback across the country over utility prices and strained electrical grids, emerging as a potential issue for the Republican Party ahead of the November midterm elections. Dismissing electoral concerns, Trump asserted that tech giants would invest heavily in local communities to ease public friction.

Public sentiment, however, remains skeptical of the industry's ability to govern itself. A recent Reuters/Ipsos survey revealed that 73 percent of Americans fear tech developers have taken insufficient action to stop AI from harming society, while a majority favored decelerating development.

Political disclosures show that tech leaders have established strong financial ties with the administration. AI industry figures were prominent contributors to the pro-Trump political action committee MAGA Inc, including Brockman and his spouse, who donated $25 million collectively in 2025. On the same day the accord was reached, White House staff also rolled out a new AI portal created by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia to streamline citizen interactions with public services.