Trump and AI CEOs sign 'morally binding' self-regulation pact

Whatever tensions existed between Donald Trump and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appear to have been resolved. The two dined on Sunday, followed by a luncheon with other tech executives who then stood alongside top Republicans outside the White House. Together, they announced a "morally binding" agreement on the governance of artificial intelligence—or "super intelligence," as Trump has rebranded the companies' products.

While Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk had reportedly clashed with the president in recent weeks over slowing the launch of new, more capable large language models—the executives called to "pace the frontier"; Trump disagreed—they have reached a new understanding.

"We all need to work together to make sure that we can win, and we can win safely," Amodei said, before retreating awkwardly into the group of high-net-worth executives assembled behind him. "If we can do this right, work with the president and everyone here, we can win safely."

Trump summarized the principles of their 308-word agreement more succinctly: "tremendous self-regulation."

The Tech Industry's Rightward Shift

Since Trump took office, pundits have observed the tech industry's rightward shift. The recent explosion of discourse over "AI safety" has reenergized that conversation, as observers question how ostensibly liberal true believers in regulation—such as Amodei, who publicly fought with the White House over defense contract terms—could make peace so easily with the avatar of the reactionary right.

Perhaps his visible discomfort at Tuesday's press conference betrayed some inner torment. But Amodei is not the only self-styled do-gooder to align with Trump:

• Mark Zuckerberg—who could barely contain his glee while standing next to the president—poured well-publicized millions into liberal causes just a few years ago.
• Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk cultivated their image as climate champions.
• Sam Altman once called Trump "unfit" to be president.

"I guess the meme is that Dario is awkward, but it is kind of weird how eager the other CEOs are to participate in a public knee-bending ceremony like this," tech journalist Kevin Roose marveled of Tuesday's White House summit. "You'd hope more of them would be visibly uncomfortable!"

The Terms of the Truce

The reasons behind the new coziness are not mysterious. The same executives have donated $227 million to Trump's SuperPAC and pet projects, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen. There are obvious benefits to having the administration's enthusiastic support.

But more than opportunism is at work. Despite the cultural and ideological fissures between MAGA and Palo Alto, the two camps share a common quasi-religious faith that economic growth can solve virtually every problem known to man.

The Gospel of Growth

Even top "true believers" who have trafficked in rationalism and effective altruism have been steadfast in their belief in growth as a somewhat mysterious but ultimately positive force that promises untold fortunes to those who feed it.

In 2013, Sam Altman wrote an essay arguing that rapid economic growth "is not only critical for startups, but for most systems. Either you're growing, or you're slowly dying."

Altman argued that attempts to mitigate inequalities created by the twenty-first century's biggest growth industries ("robots") could easily backfire: "We should understand that as a consequence of technology and an economy of ideas, the gap between the rich and the poor will likely increase from its already high-seeming levels. There is good and bad to this, but we should be careful not to legislate against it, which will hurt growth."

This kind of cold, supposed truth-telling is not novel among founders. Scottish philosopher and effective altruism guru Will MacAskill famously counseled disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried that the most effective way to be altruistic was to make as much money as possible. The idea of "earning to give" is compelling for those who would like to become wealthy—and for those who see an opportunity to offer them lucrative moral guidance.

Historical Roots

In 1889, at the height of the Gilded Age, industrialist Andrew Carnegie made the same case in The Gospel of Wealth:

"Not evil, but good, has come to the race from the accumulation of wealth by those who have the ability and energy that produce it."

Carnegie argued that rich men's fortunes testified to their "superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer" those fortunes to worthy causes. This spirit of farsighted charity would serve as a cudgel against "Socialists and Anarchists" looking to upset what Carnegie saw as the natural order.

"The laws of accumulation will be left free; the laws of distribution free," he wrote. "Individualism will continue, but the millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor; entrusted for a season with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but administering it for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself."

AI's Utopian Promises

Today's preachers of the new Gospel of Wealth ascribe utopian potential to the technology making them rich. Pressed to articulate the benefits of artificial intelligence—beyond its catastrophic risks—Amodei's core argument has been that large language models will deliver not only technological breakthroughs but riches fantastical enough to save the world.

In a recent blog post about pacing the frontier, Amodei argued that the industry's products "could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years, greatly accelerate economic growth rates, create a world of abundance and empowerment, and usher in a renaissance of democracy and freedom."

His "dream scenario—perhaps a goal to aim for—would be 20% annual GDP growth rate in the developing world, with 10% each coming from AI-enabled economic decisions and the natural spread of AI-accelerated technologies."

On Tuesday, Trump echoed Amodei's excitement about LLMs' capacity to deliver "unbelievable growth." Faced with rising inflation, mortgage rates, and blowback from an unpopular war on Iran, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have both been adamant that the United States can grow its way through economic headwinds.

That faith rests largely on the men who gathered outside the White House on Tuesday. Investments tied to the building binge on chips and data centers have accounted for about 20 percent of America's economic growth this year. Frothy valuations continue to buoy the stock market and, with it, the fortunes of the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, who are responsible for nearly half of all consumer spending.

Shared Belief in Impunity

Trump and Silicon Valley executives appear to share another core belief that informs this week's "self-policing" spectacle: impunity.

Given the steady drumbeat of headlines about OpenAI agents hacking into companies, nonprofits, and government agencies, it is not hard to imagine why self-policing is preferable to alternatives.

Altman's 2013 ode to the powers of growth ends with suggestions for increasing growth, including reforming tort laws that can be used to try companies for reckless and negligent behavior. Altman writes that "legal protection is of course important, but it's gotten so silly that it discourages innovation."

As former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan wrote this week, an unenforceable pledge is certainly preferable to being held accountable under the many laws that already exist to punish corporate wrongdoing. There is a chance that could happen—Khan's successor this week announced that the FTC was investigating Anthropic, OpenAI, and other unnamed companies over potential dangers posed by their products.

Another, potentially more likely, outcome is that Trump loyalists at the FTC will clear those companies of any wrongdoing. Trump, for his part, seems to believe that holding companies to existing laws and regulations—much less creating new ones—would threaten the AI boom. The people getting rich off it are inclined to agree.