Zuckerberg, tech titan CEOs can’t hide laughter after Trump spots CNN in the crowd

BS BULLETIN:

President Donald Trump interrupted CNN’s Kristen Holmes as she questioned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about whether AI companies can safely police themselves.
“CNN, fake news,” Trump said. “She’s fake news. CNN, the worst.”
Mark Zuckerberg, David Sacks and others could be seen laughing as the exchange unfolded.

Mark Zuckerberg apparently wasn’t ready for the question — or President Donald Trump’s answer.

Trump emerged from a White House artificial-intelligence luncheon Tuesday surrounded by some of the biggest names in technology, including Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and former White House AI czar David Sacks.

The gathering had just produced what Trump called a “morally binding” agreement under which leading AI companies committed to a series of internal reviews, outside audits and other safeguards.

Amodei, who has repeatedly warned about serious AI risks, stepped forward to explain his view.

“AI has incredible benefits,” he said, pointing specifically to potential medical advances.

But Amodei also added a caution.

“I think the technology has very real risks,” he said. “But we all need to work together to make sure that we can win, and we can win safely.”

That prompted CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes to call out a follow-up.

“Dario, do you think that self-policing is enough?”

Trump immediately recognized the network.

“Hold it, hold it, hold,” the president said.

Then came the review.

“CNN, fake news. She’s fake news. CNN, the worst.”

Holmes kept going.

“Do you think that self-policing is enough?” she asked again.

Behind Trump, Zuckerberg broke into a grin as Sacks and others laughed. Video from the event also showed Amodei moving back into the crowd rather than answering the follow-up.

Trump then returned to Amodei.

“Dario has been fantastic,” he said. “We had dinner the other night and he agrees with everyone. I mean, we all agree.”

Trump turned next to Zuckerberg.

“Mark had a view that was, I thought, really right down the middle,” he said. “Mark, do you wanna discuss what you thought?”

Zuckerberg then described the agreement the executives had signed.

“The basic idea is that we want to give the American people and our customers confidence that the technology works in the way that we intend,” he said.

Zuckerberg said participating companies had agreed to “robust internal controls,” outside auditing and independent board reviews.

“The idea isn’t that this is the only thing that we will ever do,” he said. “It is that this is a start.”

Holmes later told CNN that Amodei had appeared less certain than Trump about leaving AI oversight primarily to the companies themselves.

“When I went back to ask him if self-policing was enough, President Trump shut me down,” Holmes said.

Which, judging from Zuckerberg’s face, was apparently the funniest part of the rollout.

MY QUICK TAKE

The comedy is obvious, but the question Trump interrupted is actually the interesting part.

These companies just agreed to police technology that some of their own executives have warned could become extraordinarily dangerous. And the new White House accord remains voluntary — Trump himself called it “morally binding,” not legally binding.

So Holmes was essentially asking the guys building the incredibly powerful machines whether we should simply trust the guys building the incredibly powerful machines.

Trump heard “CNN.”

Zuckerberg started laughing. And somewhere, artificial intelligence learned a valuable lesson about changing the subject.