Trump, Johnson to meet with AI execs at White House amid growing debate over safety guardrails

Washington — President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with the executives of AI companies at the White House on Tuesday, as lawmakers face increasing pressure to take action amid the rapid development of the technology that some warn poses an existential threat to humanity. 

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is among those expected to attend the 12:30 p.m. East Room meeting, according to a source directly familiar with Amodei’s plans. OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Palantir CEO Alex Karp are also attending, spokespeople for the companies said, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are set to attend, according to a source familiar with Zuckerberg’s plans and a source familiar with Huang’s plans.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that the discussion will focus on finding the “right balance” between regulation and innovation. 

“Instead of just smothering this with red tape, which is always the government’s reflex, and I think would be wrong and frankly dangerous to national security if we did it here, we want to continue the innovation,” the Louisiana Republican said in an interview with Fox Business. “A balance is what we’re after. I think the conversation tomorrow will help us along that way.” 

Mr. Trump had a private dinner with Amodei on Sunday as the Anthropic leader has called for safeguards on the industry, which the president has resisted. Ahead of the dinner, Mr. Trump said AI regulations would be part of their discussion. 

Some of those who are attending Tuesday’s meeting were guests at last week’s state dinner at the White House with Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with other executives, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Executives at AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have called for limits on the speed of AI development in order to manage the potential risks. But others, including Huang, have argued that the warnings are overblown and any potential guardrails risk stifling any edge the U.S. has over China on the technology. 

Mr. Trump has pushed back against the idea of slowing down AI development, calling some of the fears a “hoax.” He said earlier this month he is looking to form a federal “AI force.” 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who represents South Dakota, told reporters Monday at the U.S. Capitol that he would not be attending the White House meeting, though he hoped it’s “productive.” 

“Well, I think we’re having some meetings with some of those folks up here later in the week,” Thune said of his absence at the White House gathering. 

Later Monday, Thune met with Amodei at the Capitol. 

Several tech executives are also slated to attend a separate event in Washington on Tuesday where AI, among other topics, will be discussed, CBS News was first to report last week. Mr. Trump is expected to give remarks at the event and unveil a new online portal for the federal government, a White House official said.