WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and executives from several leading artificial intelligence companies signed a voluntary agreement Tuesday calling for company-level safeguards and independent audits, while leaving open the possibility of future laws and regulations governing AI development. The agreement was announced after Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson met at the White House with technology leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Elon Musk, founder of xAI. Trump later posted the pact on Truth Social. Under its terms, companies would establish internal controls, hire an independent outside auditor to assess those controls and create a board committee to review findings from both internal and external auditors. The agreement does not set specific standards or penalties. It says that, over time, some of the steps could be written into law or regulation. Trump described the arrangement as “morally binding” and said he expected to appoint someone to oversee it after consulting with industry. He also suggested a committee of about 10 people would monitor the broader effort. The pact arrives amid concerns about the risks of increasingly capable AI systems and the concentration of power among a handful of technology companies. Some of the measures are practices companies already follow in some form or have previously pledged to adopt. Amodei, who has called for caution in AI development, said the technology carries “very real risks,” while adding that how to address them remains under discussion. Computer science professor Robin Jia of the University of Southern California questioned whether self-policing would protect the public interest, pointing to recent hacking disclosures and warning that the consequences could grow as AI models improve. Other experts said the agreement could balance innovation with efforts to improve safety and security. But Alex Pascal, executive director of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, argued that reducing AI harms requires legal accountability and regulation, as well as changes to the competitive pressures driving development. The White House meeting also addressed the effects of AI infrastructure on local communities. Companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in data centers and related equipment, projects that have prompted bipartisan opposition in areas where facilities are proposed or operating. Trump said the executives had agreed to consider more support for local schools or measures to reduce energy costs. He warned that continued opposition could push data centers to other locations or overseas. Earlier Tuesday, Trump said the federal government would not limit AI development or support calls for “guardrails,” describing the technology as a source of economic growth and a global contest with China. His administration also unveiled America.gov, an AI chatbot intended to help people navigate government services. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the tool could eventually help users apply for passports online. The voluntary pact therefore offers no immediate public enforcement mechanism, even as the administration promotes rapid expansion and local governments face questions about the infrastructure’s effects on electricity costs, schools and nearby residents.