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Leading AI Execs Call for U.S.-led Coalition to Set AI Rules and Standards

By  |  June 18, 2026
AI regulation

The heads of Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind on Wednesday called for a U.S.-led coalition to establish rules and standards around artificial intelligence. Speaking at a closed-door lunch on the final day of the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains in France, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the gathered heads of state that areas of international cooperation should include structured access to frontier models, and trade of chips and critical components and exclude China, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. Amodei added that countries should cooperate to address the risk of AI in cyber, bioterrorism and areas of intelligence, according to the source.

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    Amodei was joined in addressing the meeting by Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also attended the lunch, along with about a dozen other tech executives, according to The Next Web.

    While reports of the private meeting were thin on details, the thrust of the tech leaders’ message was that the leading frontier AI models are too important and too powerful that governance should not be left to technology companies alone.

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    “The technology’s future must be shaped by people, democratic institutions and society as a whole, not just by the companies building the most capable systems,” Altman told the gathering, according to an OpenAI briefing for reporters. He called for “an international forum for discussion that establishes globally accepted standards for testing, provides expert and impartial analysis of capabilities and risks, and serves as a venue for cooperation among nations.”

    According to the reports, the tech leaders proposed that the U.S., as the source of the most advanced AI technology, should lead the coalition but that China should be excluded. At least one other head of state, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, agreed the U.S. could play a lead role in establishing AI standards, according to CNBC’s sources, but declined to comment publicly.

    Read more: Colorado Refines, Rather Than Retreats From, AI Regulation

    The proposal to supervise access to the most powerful frontier models and technology, and to focus on cyber operations, bioterrorism and intelligence, while excluding China from the coalition highlights the extent to which national security has come to dominate the discussion around AI governance, supplanting safety as the primary issue. Rather than a traditional standards body or forum for international cooperation, the proposed coalition would amount to a kind of NATO for AI—a collective security organization to serve as a bulwark against geopolitical competitors and adversaries.

    The timing of the proposal is striking, however. It comes just days after the Trump administration forced Anthropic to shut down access international access to it most powerful new models, Mythos and Fable, citing national security concerns. It also comes as both Europe and Canada have embarked on concerted efforts to reduce their economies’ dependence on U.S. technology firms in the name of “AI sovereignty.”

    The Trump administration’s imposing export controls on Anthropic only heightened their concerns over a U.S. AI “kill switch,” according to Euronews. Whether the proposal to establish a U.S.-led AI governance coalition can overcome those concerns is unclear. Apart from OpenAI’s press briefing, no one who attended the lunch has commented publicly on what was discussed.

    In addition to Amodei, Altman and Hassabis, other tech leaders who attended included Mistral’s Arthur Mensch, Cohere’s Aidan Gomez, Black Forest Labs’ Robin Rombach, Synthesia’s Victor Riparbelli, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, and Meta’s Alex Wang.