Trump, Sam Altman meet privately as AI safety debate intensifies
US President Donald Trump met privately with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman backstage at the Republican midterm convention on Thursday, amid an intensifying debate over the pace and safety of frontier artificial intelligence development, according to three people familiar with the meeting, as reported by MS NOW.
Altman requested the meeting with Trump, one of the people told MS NOW. Only a brief overview of the discussion was provided, with the conversation mainly focused on artificial intelligence and the growing power of the technology.
The meeting came days after a former OpenAI researcher publicly accused OpenAI and rival Anthropic of acting irresponsibly and "gambling with our lives".ALTMAN URGES CAUTION OVER AI DEVELOPMENT
In the days surrounding the meeting, Altman and Trump have taken sharply different positions on whether the development of advanced AI should slow down.
Altman wrote on Sunday that slowing the pace of AI development "will be well worth this cost", arguing that competitive pressure should not justify recklessness or allow AI capabilities to move ahead of alignment and monitoring. He also said over the weekend that OpenAI would delay going public this year, citing safety concerns.
Altman was joined in calling for caution by Elon Musk and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. In a rare show of agreement, the three technology executives argued that AI development needs to slow before the technology moves beyond human control.
Trump struck a different note on Monday. In a post on Truth Social, he dismissed the idea of AI guardrails, saying the technology requires only "a strong and smart president".
In a second post, Trump warned that regulating the AI industry would lead to "oblivion and bankruptcy" and called AI "the greatest economic development engine in history".
Trump has long argued that regulation should not impede AI innovation. Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, he revoked a Biden-era directive that had set parameters around AI development.
In December, he signed an executive order seeking to establish a federal framework and national standard for AI that would pre-empt state regulation. The order said US AI companies must be free to innovate without "cumbersome regulation".WHITE HOUSE AI FRAMEWORK REMAINS UNPUBLISHED
In June, Trump signed a second order directing the federal government to work with AI developers on a voluntary framework that would give the government access to new models for up to 30 days before their release.
Altman voiced support for the order at the time, writing on X that the US should continue building the "very best" AI models while ensuring they are safe.
The framework was completed by its August 1 deadline, a White House official said. The administration convened AI companies the following day to discuss it. A person familiar with the meeting confirmed that Anthropic attended.
No readout was released, and the White House has not made the finalised framework public.
Trump and Altman were last seen together publicly in June at a Group of Seven working lunch with world leaders and technology executives, where they sat next to each other.- EndsPublished By: Zafar ZaidiPublished On: Sep 15, 2026 02:58 IST
