The White House Brings Tech Giants Together for an AI Pact

The White House is evolving its official vocabulary towards "super intelligence" and bringing tech giants together around a voluntary commitment. Meanwhile, the Pentagon continues to oppose Anthropic, and observers doubt the legal significance of the text, which is marred by a spelling mistake and was prepared hastily.

A voluntary text, a spelling mistake, and expressed doubts

The joint commitment signed by AI leaders contains an error in the title "United States." Participation is entirely voluntary. Sean O'Kane states that it is deeply non-binding legally, while Donald Trump describes it as "morally binding." The preparation of the agreement and the meeting seems to have been rushed. Commentators express skepticism about the actual significance of the text and find it particularly noteworthy that such a gesture was deemed necessary, even if they do not expect major changes.

Pentagon hostile to Anthropic, Treasury supportive, and a divided White House

The Department of Defense maintains a very critical stance towards Anthropic, labeling it as "woke" and a risk to national security, and is unhappy with certain conditions the company wants to impose on the use of its technology. In contrast, the Treasury Secretary appears supportive of the company. Within the White House, some officials wish to utilize Anthropic's technology and incorporate it into decision-making, while others oppose it, a heterogeneity already observed during a previous crisis involving the Pentagon. Despite Dario Amodei's presence at the event, observers believe that a distance remains, with the extent of Donald Trump's prior knowledge about a key dinner still uncertain.

Late-night one-on-ones to a lunch with Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg

Dario Amodei was invited to a dinner at 10 PM with Donald Trump. A few days later, a lunch brought together many leaders from major tech companies, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Dario Amodei. This week, Donald Trump hosted numerous key figures in AI, and CEOs signed the joint commitment. The subsequent press conference generated many memes, inspired by the behavior of the gathered leaders.

From decree to rebranding: focusing on "super intelligence"

An executive order now requires official representatives to use the term "super intelligence" instead of "artificial intelligence." Donald Trump also announced a Super Intelligence Force over the weekend. Two weeks prior, he stated that he did not want AI regulation and criticized those who warn about its dangers. Kirsten Korosec sees this sequence as an effort at rebranding, interpreting the message as the idea that AI is concerning and destroys jobs, whereas super intelligence would not have these effects. She further believes that the decree is partly theatrical and does not produce concrete effects.