GUWAHATI: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, September 29, announced a voluntary agreement with major technology companies to establish standards and safeguards for artificial intelligence (AI), while reiterating his support for the rapid expansion of data centres.
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The announcement came after Trump hosted AI industry leaders at the White House for a luncheon, where his administration again signalled opposition to government regulation of the rapidly developing technology.
Under the “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities”, executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI and Nvidia agreed to implement “robust” controls to monitor AI models and appoint internal teams to ensure the safeguards are working as intended.
The companies also agreed to work with independent auditors to assess whether AI systems are operating as designed. The agreement further requires companies to take measures to prevent AI tools from accessing or hacking technical systems in unintended ways.
“It’s almost like a constitution in a way, and the biggest people in the world signed that, and I signed it as president, and it really is a form of protection,” Trump said.
The agreement comes amid growing international and industry calls for stronger oversight of advanced AI. Twenty countries and the European Union recently called for greater global coordination to keep AI under human control, including a possible international body to establish and enforce standards.
Trump has opposed supranational regulation of AI and has rejected calls for slowing down the development of advanced systems, arguing that the US needs to maintain its technological lead over China.
The Trump administration is also facing increased scrutiny over AI safety following reports from OpenAI and Anthropic that AI agents had carried out unauthorised activities, including attempts to hack into companies’ systems.
The new commitment is voluntary and does not include government enforcement mechanisms or legal penalties. It outlines four layers of controls and audits, including internal safety monitoring during training, internal oversight of those controls, independent external assessments and review by an independent board.
However, the agreement does not require companies to publicly disclose the findings of independent evaluations. It also appears to leave companies with the authority to select their evaluators, appoint oversight boards and decide whether to publish the results.
Trump also signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official communications and policy documents instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI”.
Trump was asked whether his support for data centre expansion could hurt Republicans in the November elections. He said technology companies would work to ensure local communities welcomed the construction of data centres.
Later, speaking to reporters outside the White House alongside the tech executives, Trump said, "These big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities."
