First lady Melania Trump hosted several top technology leaders at the White House on Thursday for a meeting of an artificial intelligence (AI) education task force, as she increasingly takes up the mantle of AI-related issues.
She was joined by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was spotted in the audience.
“I predict AI will represent the single largest growth category in our nation during this administration — and I won’t be surprised if AI becomes known as the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America,” the first lady said Thursday.
“But as leaders and parents, we must manage AI’s growth responsibly,” she added. “During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering but with watchful guidance.”
The task force meeting follows her announcement last week of a presidential AI challenge, urging students across the country to “unleash their imagination and showcase the spirit of American innovation.”
She also helped usher the Take It Down Act through Congress earlier this year. The bill criminalized the publication of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes.
President Trump is set to host tech moguls, including Altman, Pichai, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, at the newly renovated Rose Garden later Thursday.
