Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook and OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman are expected to attend President Trump’s White House state dinner next week for Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Bloomberg News‘ Shirin Ghaffary and Mark Gurman. A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News that Cook would be at the event, which President Donald Trump is hosting in Washington. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, confirmed Altman’s attendance. The White House did not immediately comment. The dinner is expected to include other prominent U.S. business leaders, among them Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang. The gathering comes at a sensitive moment for U.S.-China relations, with tensions still running through trade, geopolitics and the race to dominate artificial intelligence. Trump said earlier this week that he maintains a “great relationship” with Xi. The dinner itself is expected to be staged under a tent on the White House grounds. Trump has long argued that a permanent ballroom would spare the White House from putting up temporary structures for large state events, but the new ballroom is currently under construction and is not available for next week’s banquet. The White House ballroom is expected to be finished in summer 2028, with Trump putting the scheduled opening at around September 2028. Cook left the chief executive role at Apple on September 1st and became executive chairman. In that post, he has said he intends to stay involved in government relations, including dealings with the White House and China. Apple remains heavily dependent on China as both a manufacturing base and a major consumer market. Altman’s presence would put one of the most visible figures in generative AI at the same table as the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. Industry debate over the pace of AI development, safety guardrails, and export controls has intensified this year, and a state dinner of this kind is likely to put those issues in the background of any conversation between Washington and Beijing. MacDailyNews Take: Administration officials have separately discussed the possibility of a sidelines meeting with technology executives during Xi’s visit, though no such session has been finalized. Regardless, there is no way to “slow down,” or apply “guardrails” on, the progress of AI. There will always be countries and companies pushing forward regardless of whatever unverifiable rules and regulations some countries attempt to impose. It’s simply human nature. Any proposed “pause” runs contrary to human nature and, as in all endeavors that attempt to do so, will fail. As we wrote in 2007, “Business models that fly in the face of human nature are doomed to failure.” “Systems of government that fly in the face of human nature are doomed to failure, too.” — MacDailyNews, October 19, 2019 “Anything that flies in the face of human nature is unsustainable and will therefore fail at some point.” – MacDailyNews, March 29, 2023 Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon. The post Apple’s Cook and OpenAI’s Altman set to join President Trump at state dinner with China’s Xi appeared first on MacDailyNews. You're currently a free subscriber to MacDailyNews. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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