Trump says AI companies should regulate themselves, and that AI itself needs a new name.
President Trump met with more than two dozen technology executives at the White House on Tuesday, as debate over new AI safety rules continues. Afterward, he told reporters the group had agreed that AI companies should largely police themselves. Trump said there is a belief that regulation should be minimal, according to NBC News. He also floated renaming artificial intelligence altogether, though he did not say what he would call it instead.
A president publicly endorsing self-regulation for an industry already facing scrutiny over safety, copyright, and labor effects signals which way federal policy is likely to lean. Compare that to the EU's AI Act, which sets binding rules rather than leaving compliance to the companies being regulated. If self-regulation becomes the default posture in Washington, the executives who just had lunch with the president are the ones who will effectively write the rules they follow.
Renaming a technology doesn't change what it does. Pitching a rebrand right after promising a light regulatory touch looks less like clarity and more like managing public perception.