US President Donald Trump points as he speaks to the media at the White House driveway following a luncheon for tech leaders in the East Room, in Washington, D.C., US, September 29, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump shouted down a reporter he identified as being from CNN after the journalist challenged his claim that artificial intelligence companies can police themselves.
The clash came Tuesday as Trump took questions outside the White House with tech leaders standing behind him, NBC News reported. The president had just hosted a private lunch with nearly 20 tech executives, and he kept pushing back on calls for new safety rules.
The appearance came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called earlier this month for leading firms to slow down, as companies logged mounting cases of AI agents going rogue.
"Mr. President, tell us why the world should not be concerned about AI. Why there shouldn't be guardrails?" one reporter asked Trump.
"Because we have people that love our country and love the world," Trump replied.
"It requires more than love, doesn't it, sir?" a second reporter pressed.
"No. It requires this and the smartest people in the world," Trump said. "And we had a great meeting today. Every one of them."
"Who should be held accountable when the AI agents commit a crime?" another reporter asked.
"It's not AI. It's SI," Trump answered. "…We've changed the name officially today. We've changed the name, Steve, officially to SI. OK?"
"SI, like SI, SI, instead of AI. You know what that means? Superintelligence," he continued.
"So, Mr. President, we really don't have to answer that?" a reporter asked.
"So the name… I guess that's really quite an announcement, because the name has been officially changed by the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world at this," Trump said.
Later, a reporter asked Trump whether anything he heard at the lunch had changed his mind about guardrails.
"I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police," Trump said.
"If we do this right, we work with the president and everyone here, we can win safely," Amodei told reporters after they called him to the front of the group.
"Do you think that self-policing is enough? Are you…" another reporter asked Trump.
"Hold it! Hold it! Hold it! CNN! Fake news!" Trump shouted.
"Do you think that self-policing is enough?" the reporter tried again.
"The worst!" Trump said.
Trump announced this month that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, and a federal judge has temporarily blocked the move, NBC News reported.
"Mark, you wanna discuss what you learned?" Trump said, turning to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after the reporter asked for a follow-up.
"It's tremendous good. We want it to be safe. And they're gonna be watching over each other," Trump said after Zuckerberg described the accord the executives had signed.