AI chiefs sign a self-policing accord at the White House

AI’s biggest players promised to police themselves at the White House¹. The signatories included Google’s Sundar Pichai, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman and xAI’s Elon Musk². Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang attended the meeting with President Donald Trump on artificial intelligence³. Other attendees included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and House Speaker Mike Johnson⁵.

Trump rebranded AI as super intelligence as the technology companies signed the accord⁴. Apple was not represented, and no one from the company attended⁴. Zuckerberg was pulled forward from the crowd of billionaire executives by Trump⁶. The executives also backed data centre expansion⁶. A White House direction to government on the use of the super intelligence label accompanied the signing⁵.

The reaction

The technology sector is split over the pact³. Venture capital investor David Sacks, who previously served as Trump’s AI czar, called the meeting “the Bretton Woods of Super Intelligence”^8,9. Sacks, who left the White House earlier this year, ranked among the most enthusiastic, saying only President Trump could have done it¹³. Sacks has also argued that liability for AI safety should sit with the companies¹⁰.

Critics called the self-policing accord as dangerous as it is absurd¹⁴. The accord came out of a gathering that included the president, other top officials and more than a dozen technology executives¹⁴. Business Standard described the pact as reviving a Biden-era model and asked whether that is enough in 2026¹³. Semafor reported that Zuckerberg quietly shaped the pact¹⁵. Politico’s account describes Trump and Zuckerberg listening as Amodei spoke to reporters⁷.

What to watch

Politico argued that the big problem behind the accord is that it does not change anything¹¹. It also reported that the AI rebrand may stop at the White House⁷. The Verge collected what AI leaders are saying about the new safety plan². CNBC carried the signing itself, with Sacks arguing on camera that liability for AI safety should rest with the companies¹⁰.

The accord landed in a market already carrying stress elsewhere: the thirty-year Treasury yield reached its highest since 2002, and hedge funds now hold a record share of the $30 trillion Treasury market¹². The same report said OpenAI has delayed its initial public offering¹². Fortune reported that OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, will not make a second $25 million donation they had pledged to Leading the Future¹.