Billionaire tech CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jensen Huang spoke with President Donald Trump last month and convinced him to block efforts to establish an AI industry-funded regulator, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, despite growing fears about AI safety.
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Key Takeaways
- Citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Journal reported Meta’s Zuckerberg, SpaceXAI’s Musk and Nvidia’s Huang opposed a push by some AI executives to build an industry-funded oversight body similar to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
- The proposal for a FINRA-style AI regulatory and standards body came from Google’s Chief Scientist Demis Hassabis, who also chairs the tech giant’s DeepMind AI unit.
- The billionaires’ purported concern about the proposal stemmed from fears it would entrench more power in the hands of the three leading American AI labs: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s DeepMind.
- All three expressed their concerns to Trump in separate conversations, after which the president didn’t move forward with proposals for setting up the regulator.
- According to the Journal, administration officials have told top AI executives that building consensus on an AI regulatory framework at the White House is challenging because CEOs opposing such moves are contacting Trump directly.
What To Watch For
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Huang are expected to attend next week’s State Dinner at the White House for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook, who recently stepped down as CEO but remained on the board as the company’s government liaison, will also be in attendance. Despite Trump’s recent dismissal of AI safety fears and push to beat China, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Axios that the Trump administration is “open to discussions on avoiding shared risks” on the issue.
What Has Zuckerberg Said About AI Safety Recently?
On Tuesday, both Zuckerberg and Huang downplayed concerns about AI safety risks and argued that companies can pace themselves without external regulation. Zuckerberg outlined his argument in a lengthy X post, arguing that companies have a “strong natural incentive” to ensure AI is aligned to safety and human interests, as people will not use AI agents that are “misaligned with them and…don’t do what they ask.” Meta’s billionaire CEO also appeared to dismiss the argument that AI companies may need to coordinate to ensure safety, noting that “every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the pace required to train its models safely, and the ability to take its own actions to ensure that happens.” Zuckerberg, however, said his company was open to engaging independent evaluators and advisers on AI, agreeing with Anthropic and OpenAI.
What Has Huang Said About AI Safety Recently?
Huang also dismissed slowdown talks and safety fears on Tuesday, telling attendees at Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce event that the question of having to choose between safety and speed was a “false” one. “You could definitely have both at the same time.” He then argued: “We don’t need new laws — we don’t need new regulations.” Huang then pointed to market forces and said companies should pace themselves until they are confident about “releasing something that the market would appreciate.” A day earlier, he had attended a call from Trump while he was live on stage during the All-In Summit. In the call, Trump argued that people opposing AI and data center construction were “playing right into the hands” of skeptics and China and declared, “We’re not going to let that happen.” Huang told the president, “You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir.”
What Has Musk Said About AI Safety Recently?
Last week, Musk questioned and mocked a series of viral X posts made by Jacob Coxon, an ex-Anthropic researcher, who quit the company and raised alarm about AI-driven human extinction over the next decade. Musk said the posts seemed like a ‘setup and argued that this was a spark that followed “groundwork” for a “psy op (for lack of a better term),” presumably against AI. But when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued warnings about AI safety and called for “pacing” the development of frontier AI models and better coordination on safety, Musk wrote, “Dario is right.” However, unlike Anthropic and OpenAI, Musk’s SpaceXAI has not laid out any plans to coordinate or pace frontier AI model development.
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