Wednesday, September 30, 2026
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Today | FCC Meeting and BEAD Isn't Over Yet: What Happens After Final Approval?
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President Trump Asks A.I. Titans to Police Themselves
AI is Now SI
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President Trump summoned the world’s most powerful technology executives to the White House and praised the assembled billionaires as “very brilliant” minds who wanted to make the world a better place through job creation, the construction of data centers, and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence. President Trump faces questions about whether A.I. should be regulated, and particularly whether restrictions should be put in place to protect humans from technology that has learned to outmaneuver existing safeguards. But in the end, convening all of those billions and all of that brainpower did not result in a commitment to formal regulation. Instead, they signed a voluntary agreement to adopt safety policies that include risk reviews, auditing and evaluations of systems by third parties. The one-page document is short on details and relies on the companies to follow through with their promises. It is not an official order, and it is unclear who would enforce the guidance. It was signed by President Trump and the leaders of Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, and SpaceXAI. They also agreed to adopt Trump’s preferred rebranding of A.I.: “super intelligence.” “This is going to be all for the good, and we’re going to have it be nice and safe,” President Trump said. “And they’re really going to be policing each other, and that’s the way it works.” Asked if the agreement would be binding, President Trump said, “I think it’s morally binding.” President Trump promised not to hamper the artificial-intelligence industry with regulations, doubling down on his light-touch approach despite growing calls from Silicon Valley and the public for new guardrails. “I will never stifle the growth of technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” he said. The Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and existing authorities are sufficient to hold accountable bad actors using AI for nefarious purposes, he said.
The capabilities of today’s frontier systems do much more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence. They increasingly amplify human ingenuity and unlock new forms of creativity, empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible across science, medicine, and nearly every other domain of human endeavor. As these capabilities continue to improve, they increasingly represent not merely artificial intelligence, but a new era of Super Intelligence. The terminology used by the Federal Government should reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people. Accordingly, the term “Super Intelligence” more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies. It is therefore the policy of my Administration that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” and will not acknowledge the usage of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in any applicable setting. To the maximum extent permitted by law, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch. For purposes of this order, and except where otherwise provided by law, the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” mean the technologies and systems encompassed by the term “artificial intelligence” as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15, United States Code. This definition shall govern the implementation of this order unless and until superseded by subsequent Presidential action consistent with applicable law or by an Act of Congress. Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST), in consultation with the heads of other agencies as the APST deems appropriate, shall submit to the President proposed legislative language to establish a Federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and “SI.”
This executive order directs the establishment of America.gov as the unified digital front door to the Federal Government for every individual in the United States seeking Federal information or services. America.gov will not be merely another website, search engine, or directory of Government links. It will be a secure, intelligent, and service-oriented point of entry through which an individual may sign in, communicate in plain language, receive accurate answers, and, where authorized and technically available, complete Government transactions without being required to navigate the websites of multiple agencies. America.gov will enable the Federal Government to do its own paperwork so that the American people may get on with their lives. Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall issue a memorandum to the heads of agencies on implementation of this order.
A look at why ISPs fail or get into early trouble and struggle, including the common mistakes I’ve seen that have led to big problems for ISPs.
- Biting Off More than Can be Chewed. One of the biggest causes of problems is ISPs that try to grow too big too fast.
- Takes Longer to Get to Market than Expected. There are always issues that take longer than expected, and it’s not always the same issues.
- Miss Important Steps. Even small details can get you.
- Everything Costs More than Anticipated. This could be a factor of lousy estimating, or of not anticipating the impact of delays. But when projects start running short on cash, they start making other mistakes by taking shortcuts.
- Sales Slower Than Anticipated. Unless the ISP has fully pre-sold the market, the rate of customer acquisition is usually considerably longer than they hoped, adding more pressure on finances.
- Early Outages.
- Keep the Public on Your Side. The industry is full of stories of ISPs that antagonized the public through shoddy construction processes, and particularly for not doing remediation to fix public problems as soon as they arise. A community can turn quickly on an ISP that doesn’t make quality an important issue.
Former artificial intelligence researcher Jacob Coxon recently told the world that the companies he once worked for are driving humanity to the brink of extinction. Days after he made his claims, tech CEOs seemed to agree, and in a series of lengthy manifestos and X posts, asked for … an antitrust exemption. Wait, what? What these companies need is not more power, to say nothing of a government handout, but some long-overdue accountability. One way to give it to them is to let the people they harm sue them in court. I am introducing legislation in Congress to make the corporations liable for the actions of their agents when they design the agents in a reckless fashion. My legislation would also make users liable when they deploy the agents in a reckless way. And it would toughen criminal penalties. The federal government already has laws on the books against hacking. It’s time to make clear those laws apply to AI companies. My legislation would give prosecutors the power to charge companies with crimes when the firms know their agents are capable of criminal conduct and fail to create reasonable safeguards. We should apply the same rule to AI users. If a user knowingly deploys an AI agent and allows it to commit crimes, like crashing systems and stealing data, the user should be criminally liable.
[Josh Hawley, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Missouri.]
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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