Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out directly against a flagship White House proposal to create a new US regulator for advanced artificial intelligence, according to a Politico exclusive. In a phone call with President Donald Trump the week of August 17 — placed by Trump, according to one person familiar with the matter — the Meta chief executive said he opposed the plan.
The proposal, championed by Google's Nobel Prize-winning scientist Demis Hassabis and favored by some senior White House officials, would create an independent body modeled on FINRA, the US securities industry's self-regulatory organization. It would review advanced AI models and test them for potential risks before broader deployment. The White House previewed the idea with Trump and with tech companies including Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic in mid-August.
Zuckerberg did not ask Trump to abandon the plan, but told him that people appointed to such a body should reflect Trump's own light-touch approach to AI, the report said. The exchange fits a pattern in which private calls between Trump and tech executives have shaped — and at times delayed — administration AI policy. In May, adviser David Sacks, who calls a government regulator 'a DMV for AI,' convinced Trump to postpone an AI executive order at the last minute.
The idea has not been killed. The administration is weighing the FINRA-style regulator against an industry-led, movie-ratings-style body backed by Sacks, which he says has Elon Musk's support. A White House spokesperson said the administration is 'committed to balancing innovation and security in AI policymaking.' Meta declined to comment.
