Amid widespread public concern over artificial intelligence risks, U.S. President Donald Trump and Silicon Valley industry leaders reached an agreement to support hiring external auditors to assess the safety of AI systems, aiming to avoid new government regulations.

The agreement was finalized at a White House lunch on Tuesday, with nearly 24 technology industry executives attending. AI companies participating in the agreement also pledged to meet regularly to develop industry best-practice standards. The document is not legally binding, but Trump told reporters it carries "moral force."

Speaking to reporters in the White House driveway after the event, Trump said: "In a certain way, it's almost like a constitution. The top business leaders in the world signed this document, and I signed it as president. It really is a protective mechanism."

The agreement was reached after nearly two hours of talks between the president and attendees, at a time of growing global concern over the potentially catastrophic risks of artificial intelligence. Signatories include leaders of the most prominent AI developers: Anthropic PBC CEO Dario Amodei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SpaceXAI's Elon Musk.

According to a copy of the agreement posted by Trump on his Truth Social network, other signatories also include OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta Platforms Inc.'s Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai, the parent company of Google. Several companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, had previously committed to bringing in independent evaluators.