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 artificial intelligence needs without slowing its development. Johnson said the discussion would seek a balance, but his remarks did not set out a specific proposal.
A person familiar with the plans told Reuters the meeting was set for Sept. 29. In a Fox Business interview on Sept. 28, Johnson, a Republican, said he opposed both a pause in AI development and sweeping regulation. “The innovation is important to continue, but we have to strike the right balance. That’s what the conversation is going to be about,” he said.
For AI developers and the federal government, the distinction matters. Johnson tied his opposition to heavy regulation to competition with China, while also saying safety, transparency and oversight were necessary. That leaves the question of what federal oversight would look like—and when it would apply—unanswered in his public remarks.
Johnson suggested the Justice Department could have a role if problems arise. “But what we need before we get to that stage is transparency, and we need some oversight,” he told Fox Business. He did not describe a new Justice Department action or say how transparency would be required.
People familiar with the plans told Reuters that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang were among those expected at the meeting. Their expected participation shows the range of companies involved in the discussion, but the plans do not establish who attended or whether the meeting produced a policy decision.
