President Donald Trump has a new plan to keep artificial intelligence safe, and he’s putting much of the responsibility on the companies building it.
Trump met with some of the industry’s biggest names at the White House Tuesday and announced a new voluntary safety agreement.
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“In order to build a positive future for the American people and the world, we believe every company is responsible for developing its own technology safely and in a way that builds trust with customers and the public,” the agreement says.
The companies are committing to internal controls and outside reviews as they develop more powerful AI systems.
“Well, 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,” Trump said. “But the self-regulation is very important.”
Trump says the agreement will be “morally binding” and plans to name someone to oversee it.
Democrats push for more
The voluntary approach stops short of the mandatory safeguards some AI leaders and lawmakers have been calling for.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says self-policing isn’t enough.
He pushed the Senate Tuesday to require safety testing and incident reporting for the most advanced AI systems.
“Are we really going to trust the industry to self-police on something that goes beyond what is happening?” Warner said. “I’m not an AI doomer, but the ability to have these AI agents take over, shut down part of the financial system is real. We should heed the call from the experts.”
A new federal AI tool
Earlier in the day, Trump also launched America.gov, a new AI-powered portal designed to give people one place to search for federal information and services.
“With America.gov, the federal government no longer stands in your way, and it stands only at your service,” Trump said. “And that’s what we’re doing. We’re simplifying it. We’re glamorizing it. We’re making it what it should be.”
Trump signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to begin integrating their public services into America.gov within 90 days.
For now, the site can search government information.
The plan is to eventually let people do things like renew passports or enroll in Medicare directly through it.
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