Trump privately met with OpenAI’s Sam Altman at GOP convention

President Donald Trump met privately with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman backstage at the Republican midterm convention on Thursday, days after a former researcher for the company publicly accused both it and rival Anthropic of acting irresponsibly and “gambling with our lives,” according to three people familiar with the meeting.

Altman requested the meeting with the president, according to one of the people, and only a brief overview of the discussion — mainly centered on artificial intelligence and its growing power — was provided to MS NOW. 

In the days since, the two men have staked out sharply different positions on whether frontier AI development should slow down.

Altman posted on Sunday night that slowing the pace “will be well worth this cost; no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring.” Altman also over the weekend said OpenAI will delay going public this year, citing safety concerns.

Altman was not alone. In a rare show of agreement, he, Elon Musk and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei each argued over the weekend that AI development needs to slow before the technology outpaces human control.