September 5, Friday: US President Donald Trump has organized a celebrity dinner on Thursday, September 4 at the White House. The meet highlights technological growth in artificial intelligence (AI) and business investments in the United States. In a report by Mint, the dinner included a number of influential Indian-origin CEOs, highlighting their increasing role in determining global tech.
Indian origin CEOs who were part of Trump's dinner guests
The evening dinner took place in the State Dining Room after the initial Rose Garden plan was disrupted due to rain. The guests invited to the dinner included Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. Vivek Ranadive, Chairman of TIBCO, and Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar were also in attendance.
They were accompanied by tech giants like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Blue Origin CEO David Limp, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, and Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
Trump, speaking to the assembled group, referred to the participants as "high IQ people" and applauded AI innovations as a force "taking our country to a new level," Mint reported.
AI promise and political tensions
The White House previously welcomed its Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force, led by First Lady Melania Trump, and included participation from many of the same tech industry leaders. The talks uncovered both the potential and dangers of AI.
But the dinner ignited Republican Party tensions. Senator Josh Hawley denounced the untrammeled power of big tech, demanding government audits of border AI systems and naming specifically Meta and ChatGPT in his criticism.
Trump himself quipped about AI possibly being accused of problems in the future, referencing a viral video mishap at the White House. First Lady Melania Trump also called for balance, observing the potential and danger of AI.
As reported by Mint, the dinner sealed Trump's approach of meeting leading tech executives, even as controversies around regulation and ethics of AI are heightening in Washington.
