LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 (Our Los Angeles) — A planned White House meeting between President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and technology executives puts a central U.S. policy question in focus: how much oversight should the government place on artificial intelligence as companies develop it?
Johnson, a Republican, said in a Monday interview with Fox Business that the discussion would seek a balance between continued innovation and safeguards. “We do not need a moratorium. We do not need to jump in and hyper-regulate this, because we’ll lose the race to China,” he said. He also called for safety, transparency and oversight.
For AI developers, the distinction matters. A moratorium would halt some development, while extensive regulation could place new limits on it. Johnson instead described a discussion about oversight before problems arise. He said the Justice Department might have a role “if things go awry,” but did not describe a specific proposal or enforcement action.
The meeting was planned for September 29 at the White House, a person familiar with the plans told Reuters. People familiar with the plans identified Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang as expected participants. Their expected attendance is not confirmation that they took part.
Johnson’s remarks frame the choice facing U.S. officials, but they do not settle it. The available accounts do not establish whether the meeting will produce a policy proposal, or what any proposed oversight would require of AI companies.
