President Donald Trump gathered leading artificial intelligence executives at the White House on Tuesday to sign a voluntary accord. The meeting took place one month before the midterm elections as a way to reset the administration's messaging on the contentious issue of AI risks.
The agreement was signed by six leading tech executives and dozens of AI firms, including leaders from Nvidia, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The participants vowed to advance their AI models safely and implement safeguards. As part of the accord, President Trump endorsed the use of outside auditors to conduct external reviews, alongside internal assessments, to evaluate the safety of these systems.
This voluntary pledge seeks to sidestep new government rules and carries no legal force. This differs from the regulatory environment in the European Union, where the same companies face fines of up to 3% of global turnover for breaking rules. Due to the voluntary nature of the White House agreement, it is unclear how much the pledge will matter.