Trump: Self-regulation only for AI. Order signed to rename it ‘Super Intelligence’
A lunch at the White House with dozens of leading figures from the American artificial intelligence sector to usher in the new era of Super Intelligence. No mention was made of risks, crises or incidents, although an advisory oversight committee may well be set up.
Donald Trump summoned the American tech elite to the White House, using them as a prime audience to vigorously promote his laissez-faire approach to artificial intelligence – or rather, ‘Super Intelligence’, as he has now decreed it should be called. He ignored calls from at least some of the industry leaders present at the working lunch – including Dario Amodei of Anthropic – to slow down the race in order to avert risks. Instead, he stated that he was satisfied with the ‘morally binding’ commitments made by the companies in his presence to address the dangers of AI – commitments he likened to a ‘Constitution’. Ultimately, by embracing the techno-optimism of the most aggressive and controversial champions of AI – such as Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg – he heralded the advent of a ‘new era’.
As if to symbolise his ‘free-for-all’ approach, Trump has also launched a new AI-powered government services website aimed at the public. After a lunch with around twenty top executives from the sector – who were never short of superlatives – he stated that ‘I will never stifle the growth of a technology that will be greater than the Industrial Revolution’. Any ‘bad actors’ – criminals using AI for illegal purposes – may be prosecuted by the Department of Justice and the FBI under existing laws. There will be no new legislative measures, however – no federal regulations, nor restrictions imposed by the authorities – but rather ‘fantastic self-regulation’ by the Big Tech brands themselves, giants which critics currently regard as lacking credibility and operating as quasi-monopolies. Moreover, Trump’s own family empire also has investments in the tech and AI sectors, a fact which has raised explicit suspicions of a conflict of interest.
Trump clarified that he had discussed and agreed with the ‘kings of AI’ on the text of an agreement (which has remained confidential) that he considers ‘morally binding’ and under which companies would have pledged to voluntarily manage and dispel the spectre of serious crises caused by AI. In his view, it would be a sort of founding constitutional document for the new era. It has emerged that, at most, a special national commission of ten ‘wise men’ might be set up to keep an eye on the technology, but the response to growing risks and concerns has remained, as ever, one of aggressive deregulation, without heavy-handed government intervention.
Among the concrete outcomes announced following the lunch, one was particularly close to the President’s heart – he had also mentioned it in his speech to the UN: the decision to change the name of AI. By executive order, it is officially to be renamed with the more grandiose title of ‘super intelligence’. This is a public relations exercise, designed to mark the start of a new phase: Trump explained that ‘artificial’ gave the impression of something fake, whilst it is necessary to reassure the public (who, according to polls, overwhelmingly reject AI and the government’s lax attitude towards it). With this rebranding, the president is also indulging his personal passion for rewriting the vocabulary: he has already renamed, again by executive order, Lake Ontario as Lake America and the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The White House has accompanied the new presidential executive orders with a fact sheet that is very light on facts. It should be noted that from now on, all official and policy documents issued by the government will refer to ‘Si’ (Super Intelligence), not ‘AI’, in recognition of what are described as the ‘immense opportunities’ of this new technological frontier, where the US has and will continue to hold global leadership. There is no mention whatsoever of risks or doubts, not even in passing.
