President Donald Trump will host a lunch today at the White House with senior executives from major artificial intelligence companies, while his earlier proposals for an "AI Force" and a new "AI czar" have not advanced to concrete appointments more than a week after they were raised.
Names floated and a withdrawn frontrunner
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent briefly emerged in media reports as a leading candidate for the czar role, but Trump later dismissed that possibility, saying Bessent did not want the position. Other names mentioned include Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. It remains unclear whether appointing a czar and assembling an AI task force are active priorities for the White House at this time, or whether White House staff had planned the initial public announcements.
Confirmed attendees
Semafor confirmed that attendees at the lunch include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The list shows ongoing engagement between the administration and leading AI companies, even though formal government structures to oversee AI policy have not been finalized.
Dario Amodei's recent meetings in Washington
Dario Amodei was also seen Monday evening leaving a meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Amodei has been meeting with lawmakers and administration officials following a Sunday dinner with President Trump; the lack of an angry post from Trump on Truth Social after the meeting suggests it did not provoke an immediate public dispute, despite Amodei facing criticism from some within the administration.
Why it matters
The gathering underscores that governance of artificial intelligence and interchanges between Washington and the tech industry remain high on the agenda. At the same time, the absence of formal appointments and detailed plans indicates that the architecture of oversight and the officials responsible for it are still being worked out, so definitive policy steps or roles have not yet been announced.
In short: industry leaders will meet the president today, but there is no confirmed "AI czar" and the proposed "AI Force" has not been put into effect.
