By Bo Erickson, Trevor Hunnicutt and Courtney Rozen
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he expects top artificial intelligence companies to agree to “giving back” to the public, an apparent reference to a possible government stake in the firms.
“I’m going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly, and we’re talking about giving back something to the public, and if we do that, the public will become very rich,” Trump told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”
Concern is growing among Americans about AI negatively impacting their lives. Half of Americans fear that the rise of AI could put them or someone in their household out of work, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday.
AI companies Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the president meeting with AI executives.
OpenAI is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion, Reuters previously reported. An agreement to give the U.S. government equity stakes could have a massive impact on the U.S. government’s finances. OpenAI in April publicly proposed creating a “public wealth fund” to invest in AI companies, according to a company statement. Proceeds from the fund would be “distributed directly to citizens,” according to the company.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has expressed support for the idea. Trump said last week that his team would look into it.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Trevor Hunnicutt and Courtney Rozen in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu ,Mark Porter and Sanjeev Miglani)