Trump’s AI Safety ‘Accord’ Is a Fancy Pinky-Swear
Six major AI companies signed a voluntary agreement with the White House this week vowing to implement safeguards. It’s unclear how much that matters.
Donald Trump's AI safety "Accord" appears to be more of a symbolic gesture than a comprehensive regulatory framework, according to the source material. While it outlines several voluntary commitments that companies should implement, such as having robust internal controls, empowering internal teams, partnering with external monitors, and establishing a board committee for monitoring, these measures do not constitute sweeping AI regulation.
The accords were not the result of extensive demands from companies themselves, as previously thought. In fact, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea had already announced their own "Frontier AI Safety Commitments" earlier in 2025. Major AI companies like Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment on the accord.
The White House also declined to comment immediately. Neil Chilson, a former FTC chief technologist, suggested that the FTC could potentially enforce these voluntary commitments if a company materially failed to follow through on its promises. However, the story notes that there were hopes for a more significant enforcement action based solely on the accords, which may not materialize.
The FTC is reportedly planning a "sweeping probe" into several AI companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and a nonprofit called METR, following a luncheon with Trump. However, details of the investigation, such as the specific consumer protection issues under scrutiny, remain unclear.
Written by urgent.news from Wired Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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