{"id":61257,"date":"2025-09-05T20:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk"},"modified":"2025-09-05T20:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:57:10","slug":"trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk","title":{"rendered":"Trump Hosts Tech Titans Without Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is taking our country to a new level,\u201d he said at the center of a long table surrounded by what he described as \u201chigh IQ people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the latest example of a delicate two-way courtship between Trump and tech leaders, several of whom attended his inauguration. Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world\u2019s most successful businesspeople, while the companies are eager to remain on the good side of the mercurial president.<\/p>\n

While the executives praised Trump and talked about their hopes for technological advancement, the Republican president was focused on dollar signs. He went around the table and asked executives how much they were investing in the country.<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, who sat to Trump\u2019s right, said $600 billion. Apple\u2019s Tim Cook said the same. Google\u2019s Sundar Pichai said $250 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about Microsoft?\u201d Trump said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big number.\u201d<\/p>\n

CEO Satya Nadella said it was up to $80 billion per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood,\u201d Trump responded. \u201cVery good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably absent from the guest list was Elon Musk, once a close ally of Trump who was tasked with running the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk had a public breakup with Trump earlier this year.<\/p>\n

At the table instead was one of Musk\u2019s rivals in artificial intelligence, Sam Altman of OpenAI.<\/p>\n

In another reflection of shifting loyalties in Trump\u2019s world, the dinner included Jared Isaacman, who founded the payment processing company Shift4.<\/p>\n

Isaacman was a Musk ally chosen by Trump to lead NASA, only to have his nomination withdrawn because he was, in Trump\u2019s words, \u201ctotally a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dinner was expected to be held in the Rose Garden, where Trump recently paved over the grassy lawn and set up tables, chairs and umbrellas that look strikingly similar to the outdoor setup at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n

But because of inclement weather, officials decided to move the event to the White House State Dining Room.<\/p>\n

The event followed an afternoon meeting of the White House\u2019s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force, which first lady Melania Trump chaired and some tech leaders participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction,\u201d she said,<\/p>\n

Pichai, IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna and Code.org President Cameron Wilson were among those participating in the task force.<\/p>\n

The White House confirmed that the guest list for the dinner also included: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates; Google founder Sergey Brin; OpenAI founder Greg Brockman; Oracle CEO Safra Catz; Blue Origin CEO David Limp; Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra; TIBCO Software chairman Vivek Ranadive; Palantir executive Shyam Sankar; Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang; and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s outreach to top tech executives has occasionally been divisive within the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s closest allies in Congress, Sen. Josh Hawley, delivered a sharp criticism of the tech industry during a speech at a conservative conference in Washington on Thursday morning. He criticized the lack of regulation around artificial intelligence and singled out Meta and ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government should inspect all of these frontier AI systems so we can better understand what the tech titans plan to build and destroy,\u201d the Missouri senator said.<\/p>\n

Trump has embraced AI-created imagery and frequently shares it online, despite his complaints earlier in the week about the technology being used to create misleading videos.<\/p>\n

Late Wednesday night, he posted a string of AI-generated memes and videos, such as one depicting him interacting with the man pictured in the Cracker Barrel logo, one showing California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff with an extremely elongated neck, and one with Trump\u2019s face superimposed on a pole vaulter as it appears to leap over a Cracker Barrel banner.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump said a video showing items being thrown out of an upstairs window of the White House must have been created by AI, despite his team seeming to have confirmed the video\u2019s veracity hours earlier.<\/p>\n

Trump then said, \u201cIf something happens that\u2019s really bad, maybe I\u2019ll have to just blame AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first lady, at her event Thursday, likewise highlighted both the potential and peril of AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs leaders and parents, we must manage AI\u2019s growth responsibly,\u201d she said, calling for both action and caution. \u201cDuring this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children \u2014 empowering, but with watchful guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the first lady launched a nationwide contest for students in grades K-12 to use AI to complete a project or address a community challenge. The project was aimed at showing the benefits of AI, but the first lady has also highlighted its drawbacks.<\/p>\n

Melania Trump lobbied Congress this year to pass legislation that imposes penalties for online sexual exploitation using imagery that is real or an AI-generated deepfake.<\/p>\n

The president signed the \u201cTake It Down Act\u201d in May.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States. \u201cThis is taking our country to a new level,\u201d he said at the center of a long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-61257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Hosts Tech Titans Without Elon Musk - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased res ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Hosts Tech Titans Without Elon Musk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased res ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-05T20:23:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-05T20:57:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1757089282.473009.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"478\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Trump Hosts Tech Titans Without Elon Musk\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-05T20:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-05T20:57:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\"},\"wordCount\":869,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1757089282.473009.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trump-hosts-tech-titans-without-elon-musk\",\"name\":\"Trump Hosts Tech Titans Without Elon Musk - 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