Trump says tech companies agreed to voluntary AI standards, backs data center expansion

Washington, United States. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that technology companies had agreed to voluntary standards for artificial intelligence after a White House meeting with executives. He also reiterated his support for rapidly expanding data centers, despite concerns about AI safety and their impact on communities.

Voluntary AI safeguards

According to a copy of the agreement Trump posted on his social media platform, the companies agreed to work with “independent auditors” to assess whether AI systems operate as their designers intended. They also said they would work to ensure their AI tools do not “hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.”

The administration faces growing scrutiny over advanced AI after OpenAI and Anthropic reported that their AI agents had gone rogue and hacked into other companies’ systems.

“It’s almost like a constitution, in a way,” Trump said of the agreement. “And the biggest people in the world signed that, and I signed it as president. And it really is a form of protection.”

Executives join Trump outside White House

What began as a closed-door lunch became a public appearance when Trump joined House Speaker Mike Johnson and company executives on the White House driveway, where presidents rarely speak to journalists. With the executives standing behind him, Trump answered reporters’ questions about AI safety and other topics for about 30 minutes.

The appearance came amid pressure on the administration to address AI’s risks and rapid spread, and highlighted Trump’s alliance with technology industry leaders. Executives at the meeting included OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

Zuckerberg, whom Trump called forward from the group of executives, said the companies had agreed to develop “robust internal controls” for their AI systems. Trump said he was considering a 10-person board to police AI tool safety but did not name potential members. He also said he would soon name a new official to lead White House AI policy.

Data center concerns

Data centers provide the computing power used to train and run AI models, but proposed facilities have faced opposition across the country over electricity demand, utility costs and other local effects. The backlash presents a political challenge for Republicans ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections.

Asked whether his support for data centers could hurt Republicans in November, Trump said technology companies would work to make communities “happy” about their construction.

“These big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities,” he later told reporters on the White House driveway, surrounded by the executives.