Trump unveils "morally binding" AI accord as Altman launches agents for everyone

Lunch at the White House

President Donald Trump summoned the AI industry's top brass to the White House on Tuesday. Around the table: Sundar Pichai of Google, Elon Musk, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. Sam Altman himself was a no-show. The output: a signed document titled the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence," which effectively lets the labs police themselves. "Superintelligence" is now the administration's official term for the technology.

Agents for everyone, not just developers

At the same time, OpenAI held its annual DevDay. Altman took the stage to introduce "Dots" — AI agents built for regular users, not coders. The idea: software that runs continuously in the background, executes tasks, and makes decisions without constant prompting. It's another step in the direction the Valley has been talking about for months: moving from models that react to commands to systems that initiate and act on their own.

Bots in the cubicle next to you

The trend isn't stopping at consumer products. Employers across the Valley are pushing to embed these agents alongside human workers, hoping for "harmony" between the two. In practice, it's still unclear how the division of labor will look, who bears responsibility when an agent screws up, and whether human employees will welcome their new colleagues or greet them with justified dread. Experience suggests the transition tends to be messier than the demos.

Extremists on the ballot

In the background, the midterms are looming and the podcast surveys a slate of especially extreme candidates. Among them: a retired colonel turned Pentagon influencer who has praised dictators and proposes stripping voting rights from anyone without children. It's not just politicians who feel free to say the unsayable anymore; people who until recently worked inside the government are now deploying rhetoric that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Behind the mics

The episode is hosted by Brian Barrett, senior editor; Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor; and Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. The three also announced a live recording in San Francisco on October 8 at The Commons, KQED's headquarters. Tickets are available on the station's website.