No Seat at That Lunch — Tech Signed a Voluntary AI Pledge. Delaware Already Asked for Rules.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Tuesday the White House hosted a lunch for the people who build the most powerful artificial intelligence systems. Working people were not on the guest list. What came out of the room was a one-page pledge the president called almost a constitution. It is not a law.
President Trump said leading technology executives signed a document he posted on Truth Social. The Washington Examiner reported the title as the “White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities” (Washington Examiner). He called it “morally binding” and “almost like a constitution,” said the industry has to self-police, and vowed never to “stifle” its growth (Reuters, AP).
Speaker Mike Johnson called it a voluntary joint commitment — a statement of principles (CBS News). CBS, reading the Truth Social copy, described internal evaluations, outside-firm audits, board reviews, and regular meetings on standards. That text, as CBS reported it, says laws may come later (CBS News).
That is a pledge, not a statute. No fine. No independent federal enforcer named in it. Trump pointed to the Justice Department and the FBI, floated a committee of about ten, and said an AI czar would be named in three or four days (Reuters, Washington Examiner). Neither float is a law Congress passed.
Names reported at the lunch include Greg Brockman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Jeff Bezos (AP, CBS News). Brockman, not Sam Altman, was the OpenAI executive in that lineup. Trump said the group signed. No public signature page was available when this was written. Amodei said on camera that the risks are real and that the mechanism for addressing them is still under discussion (Washington Examiner).
Six days earlier, Delaware’s attorney general joined attorneys general from other states urging Congress to pass real federal safety rules — independent testing, incident reporting, and room for states to keep enforcing their own laws — because self-regulation is not enough (KPTV). Today’s accord does not answer that letter.
Delaware has already drawn lines the lunch did not. State law says an AI system cannot be licensed as a doctor or a nurse, or use those titles. It gives people a remedy for deepfake intimate images, and a privacy opt-out from certain automated decisions with legal or similarly serious effects. Those are rules. A morally binding lunch is not a substitute.
I spent years as a travel ICU nurse. You do not skip the safety check because the person who owns the machine says they will be careful. I want independent testing before the most powerful systems are released, a duty to report serious failures, and protection for workers when an employer hides behind an automated decision. Renaming it “super intelligence” does not make it safe.
I’m running as a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate (Delaware Department of Elections). This campaign is funded by people. No Super PAC money. Ever. I will not take a dime from AI or tech companies or their executives.
Today’s letter goes deeper: No Seat at That Lunch.
Register by October 10 (iVote Delaware). On November 3, write in TRAVIS JACK STEVENS · travisjackstevens.com
Sources
- Washington Examiner, Sep 29, 2026: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4747485/trump-says-tech-ceos-signed-morally-binding-document-to-self-regulate-ai/
- Reuters, Sep 29, 2026: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tech-executives-sign-morally-binding-ai-document-2026-09-29/
- AP via KRMG, Sep 29, 2026: https://krmg.com/2026/09/29/trump-vows-to-never-stifle-ai-as-leading-executives-urge-caution/
- CBS News, Sep 29, 2026: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-ai-constitution-tech-execs-openai-anthropic-voluntary-controls/
- KPTV, Sep 25, 2026 (multi-state AG letter): https://www.kptv.com/2026/09/25/oregon-24-other-states-urge-congress-pass-ai-safety-rules/
- CT AG PDF, Sep 23, 2026: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/ag/press_releases/2026/ag-letter--federal-ai-regulation-sept-23--with-signatures.pdf
- Orrick Delaware AI tracker: https://ai-law-center.orrick.com/delaware/
- Delaware DOE write-in list: https://elections.delaware.gov/candidates/candidatelist/genl_wcddt_2026.html
- iVote Delaware: https://ivote.de.gov/
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Travis Jack Stevens
Travis Jack Stevens spent years as a travel ICU nurse and is a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate · Delaware.
