The proposed AI regulator was reportedly dropped after Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Jensen Huang separately raised concerns with US President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON: A proposed AI regulator reportedly lost White House support after Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang separately raised concerns with US President Donald Trump about creating a new industry-funded oversight body.
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the proposal emerged amid growing debate within the technology industry and Trump administration over how the United States should oversee increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.
Google chief scientist and DeepMind leader Demis Hassabis had proposed an industry-funded regulatory and standards organisation modelled on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, which oversees US broker-dealers.
The proposal was intended to provide a framework for AI oversight without relying entirely on a traditional government regulator.
Why did the tech leaders oppose the proposal?
Zuckerberg, Musk and Huang reportedly raised their concerns with Trump in separate conversations.
According to the Journal’s reporting, they were concerned that the proposed AI regulator could concentrate influence among three leading AI developers: OpenAI, Anthropic and Google’s DeepMind. Questions were also reportedly raised about who would lead the organisation and how its membership would be structured.
After those conversations, Trump did not move ahead with establishing the proposed body, according to the report. That does not mean the three executives alone determined US AI policy, however, as the White House is dealing with competing views from administration officials and technology executives.
The debate comes as Trump publicly advocates a lighter regulatory approach to artificial intelligence. On September 14, he dismissed some warnings about AI risks and argued that excessive restrictions could weaken America’s position against China.
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Where do Zuckerberg, Musk and Huang stand?
The executives do not hold identical positions on AI safety.
Zuckerberg has argued that AI laboratories already have strong incentives to develop safe systems and can independently determine an appropriate pace. He has nevertheless supported independent evaluation of advanced models.
Huang has similarly argued against choosing between rapid innovation and safety, saying both can be pursued together and expressing opposition to additional regulation.
Musk’s position is more complicated. He has criticised some recent AI safety warnings, but has also publicly supported Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s calls for greater caution over advanced AI development.
The reported decision over the AI regulator highlights the broader disagreement in Washington and Silicon Valley over whether AI risks require new oversight structures or can be addressed through existing laws, voluntary safeguards and market incentives.
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Impact to expect
Debate. The reported lobbying could intensify discussion over how much influence technology executives should have on AI policy and whether the US needs a dedicated framework for overseeing increasingly capable systems.
