US President Donald Trump and the heads of six technology companies, including Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and Elon Musk, signed a voluntary accord at the White House on Tuesday committing the firms to ensure the safety of their own AI systems, with independent audits but no penalties for breaches. Trump called the deal "morally binding", but academics in Australia criticised it as letting companies define safety for themselves. It matters because it sets out Washington's preference for industry self-regulation over the binding global standards urged by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the UN.