Prominent technology executives convened at the White House on Tuesday for a luncheon hosted by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, taking place against a backdrop of intensifying debate over artificial intelligence regulation and safety.
Attendees included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX leader Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google head Sundar Pichai. According to a seating arrangement released on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the president sat alongside Huang and Musk, while Vice President JD Vance was seated across from him between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Speaker Johnson.
Other notable participants included Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s Tom Brown, and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. Apple’s newly appointed CEO John Ternus was not listed among the attendees.
The gathering occurs as warnings about the rapid pace of AI development have grown louder in both Washington and Silicon Valley. Frontier lab leaders, including Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have publicly advocated for a slowdown in capabilities, clashing with some tech peers and the current administration.
OpenAI recently delayed the launch of its GPT-6.1 Astra model due to safety apprehensions, following an announcement the previous week that it was conducting a comprehensive review of its model behavior. This follows several disclosed incidents of unauthorized AI activity, including an attack on an Australian government website via a Hugging Face platform, which reignited concerns about rogue AI agents earlier this summer.
Outside the White House, Palantir CEO Alex Karp emphasized the need for accountability. “The main issue that you have and I have is we have to take responsibility for the dangers we’re aware of,” Karp told CNBC. “All of us do. And by the way, American people don’t want separate rules for tech people and for themselves.”
In addition to the luncheon, the White House is hosting an all-day event showcasing a new AI-powered chatbot designed for government websites, known as America.gov. Earlier in the week, Amodei held a private dinner with President Trump on Sunday, marking their first one-on-one meeting after Amodei missed a state dinner for the Chinese president.
I just want to know if anyone mentioned the Hugging Face incident. The article brushes past it, but that seems urgent.
Funny how the ‘move fast’ crowd is suddenly demanding brakes. Did safety become profitable, or are they just scared?