What's in Trump's AI deal and who has reacted?

US President Donald Trump has signed a deal with tech companies to create voluntary rules for AI safety, including cybersecurity and biosecurity measures.

01 Oct 2026 05:17AM

PARIS: US President Donald Trump has signed a deal with tech leaders outlining a regime of self-regulation for the AI industry. What's in the deal and what has been the reaction?

WHAT ARE ITS TARGETS?

The document does not break the 400-word mark and has just four substantive points.

It calls for "robust internal controls" in areas including cybersecurity, biosecurity and chemical threats.

It asks firms to ensure their AI bots do not hack other systems "in unintended ways".

These guidelines are to be overseen by internal teams, as well as an "independent external auditor or evaluator" and the companies agreed to hold regular meetings.

WHY NOW 

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have all provoked outrage by admitting that their programmes have hacked other firms and even government agencies while supposedly in controlled testing environments.

There is a growing clamour for regulation of the industry to police these kinds of events.

French lawyer Eric Barbry told AFP he did not hold out too much hope that self-regulation could solve the issue.

"Who will punish companies if they fail to comply with these principles?" he asked.

Lacking any proper supervisory authority, the most potent weapon in the document is an audit - but this, he pointed out, will not stop such incidents.

IS IT BINDING

The deal is not enshrined in law and there is no stated mechanism for tech firms to be held liable for breaches.

In its final paragraph, the document states: "Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."

But Trump called the accord "morally binding".

Although that might sound weak, Barbry pointed out that such voluntary codes of practice "cannot simply be brushed aside" - especially when calls for regulation are getting louder.

WHO SIGNED 

Most of the tech billionaire class were present at the dinner with Trump - more than 30 sat around the table.

But only six of them signed the document: the leaders of Nvidia, Google, Meta, XAI, OpenAI and Anthropic.

While Trump called it a "constitution" and "tremendous self-policing", the reaction of the tech leaders themselves was hardly a ringing endorsement.

Dario Amodei of Anthropic called it "a start", and XAI's Elon Musk said the executives essentially agreed to "grading each other's homework".

WHO HAS REACTED?

The reaction has been muted.

Social media chat focused on one particular detail - a typo under Trump's signature that read "Unites States" instead of "United States".

And amateur graphologists were only too keen to tease the billionaire brigade about their various signatures - OpenAI's Greg Brockman getting flack for a childlike scrawl of lower-case initials.

"Jensen Huang (of Nvidia) has a fantastic signature ... Greg Brockman needs to try harder," Alex Weprin of the Hollywood Reporter posted on X.