Jensen Huang, Zuckerberg, Musk Persuade Trump to Scrap AI Regulatory Body

Jensen Huang, Zuckerberg, Musk Persuade Trump to Scrap AI Regulatory Body

Concerns over entrenchment of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google dominance…White House and administration also divided

Amid calls for a slowdown in artificial intelligence (AI) development, the heads of major tech companies including Nvidia, Meta, and SpaceX reportedly persuaded President Donald Trump to prevent the establishment of a related regulatory body.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently conveyed their concerns about the establishment of a regulatory body to President Trump, successfully thwarting its creation, the Wall Street Journal reported on the 17th (local time), citing multiple sources.

Sources said they opposed the move, arguing that if a private-led AI regulatory body, which had been discussed in the AI industry at the suggestion of Google Chief Scientist Demis Hassabis, were established, power would likely be concentrated among the three leading AI companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

They also reportedly expressed concerns about who would be selected as executives and other members of the proposed body.

Having held individual conversations with President Trump over the past few weeks, they are said to have expressed a preference for the 'light-touch regulation' approach currently adopted by the administration.

Within the White House and the administration, opinions on AI regulation were divided.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross had pushed for strengthened AI oversight and guidelines, but White House Science and Technology Advisor David Sacks and others consistently persuaded President Trump to maintain a minimal regulatory approach, the WSJ reported.

Ultimately, President Trump threw his weight behind accelerating AI technology, stating recently on social media platform Truth Social, "There is a pathological conspiracy going on against AI and data centers," and "Only China welcomes this."

The US AI industry has been sharply divided since Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei posted an article advocating for a slowdown in development.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google Chief Scientist Hassabis agreed with this, but CEO Huang and CEO Zuckerberg have taken opposing views.

At a recent Salesforce event, CEO Huang asserted, "Safety is a top priority, but it's also an engineering problem," adding, "We can achieve both speed and safety simultaneously."

CEO Zuckerberg also opposed the establishment of a regulatory body, stating that individual companies have the responsibility and ability to set and maintain appropriate development speeds themselves, even without external regulation.

In contrast, CEO Musk agreed with Amodei's assertion, saying "Dario is right," but SpaceXAI, his actual AI company, has not released specific plans regarding AI development speed.

Google Chief Scientist Hassabis recently proposed the establishment of a private-led AI regulation and standard-setting body modeled after the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).