Trump says top AI executives signed a "morally binding" voluntary controls accord

President Trump said on Tuesday that the heads of the largest US tech and AI companies had signed a “morally binding” agreement to put controls on artificial intelligence, following a luncheon at the White House.

According to CBS News, Trump described the one-page document, called the “Joint Commitment On Frontier Responsibilities,” as “almost like a constitution.” “The biggest people in the world signed that, and I signed it as president, and it really is a form of protection,” he said. Those present included SpaceX's Elon Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Greg Brockman and Google's Sundar Pichai, among other executives.

Under the accord, the companies committed to “four layers of controls and audits” to ensure their AI models act as intended, including internal evaluations, audits by an external firm, and reviews by each company's board of directors. They also agreed to “meet regularly to establish standards and best practices to improve the safety of their systems.”

Asked whether the deal was binding, Trump said: “I think it's morally binding.” He later added, “I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police.” The accord itself states that “over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations,” while stressing that implementing the controls and audits is critical regardless of whether companies are required to do so.

Trump also said the executives discussed forming a 10-person committee to “watch over the enterprise,” and that he plans to name an “AI czar” within the next three or four days.

Also on Tuesday, the president signed an executive order directing departments and agencies to use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official correspondence, public communications and policy documents, and to no longer acknowledge the terms “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI.”

Why it matters: with public concern about AI risk rising and calls for tighter guardrails growing, whether a framework built on voluntarism and self-policing can work remains sharply contested. The accord sets no penalties and spells out no consequences for violations, so its real force depends on what companies and the government do next.

What to watch next includes the makeup and remit of the 10-person committee, the choice of AI czar, and whether these principles eventually move toward legislation. For AI companies, signing on is both a gesture and potentially the opening move in future regulatory bargaining.