As San Francisco Tech Week wrapped up Sunday, venture capitalists and artificial intelligence founders celebrated the Trump administration’s largely hands-off approach to regulating the technology — and the business opportunities it could open, particularly in defense and security. At a Wednesday event organized by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, panelists discussed investment in defense technology. Kyle Stanford, a research director at market intelligence firm PitchBook, said the U.S. government was allocating $1 trillion to defense spending, including $13.5 billion for autonomous systems and AI. That spending, he said, had brought more capital into defense technology than ever before. The upbeat mood came amid a national debate over how to manage AI systems and the risks they pose. Late last month, President Donald Trump convened technology executives in Washington to sign a 308-word voluntary safety agreement. It calls on advanced AI developers to adopt safety protocols and establish internal teams to monitor their work, but the administration has not publicly detailed how it will assess companies’ compliance. Trump described the pact as “almost a constitution” for what his administration calls “Super Intelligence,” and later told reporters he was seeing “tremendous self-policing.” Representatives of OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, SpaceXAI and Nvidia signed the agreement. The agreement has drawn scrutiny as questions about AI safety have grown. The day after the San Francisco event, three OpenAI researchers said the company had fired them, writing that “fear and unclear rules stymie AI safety work.” OpenAI said the researchers were dismissed for violating policies on handling sensitive information. David Robinson, a former leader on the company’s safety team who recently resigned, said voluntary oversight was no substitute for law. “This is no substitute for hard law, and it does give a lot of freedom to the companies,” Robinson said, warning that AI models are being developed in cycles measured in weeks and that serious safety challenges could arise soon. Anthropic also disclosed that its AI agents had submitted a false tip to a Philadelphia police website about an unsolved homicide. The company said it was bringing in independent evaluators and discussing work with industry groups. The White House said it expected full transparency from Anthropic, calling notification and remediation a national security obligation, but did not explain how it would monitor companies’ implementation of the broader pact. Trump has argued that rapid AI development is necessary for the United States to compete with China. On taking office for his second term, he repealed a Biden-era executive order intended in part to address risks to consumers, workers and national security. He has also opposed what he describes as excessive restrictions, saying guardrails should not “kill the Golden Goose.” Members of Congress and civil liberties and consumer-rights groups have called for stronger oversight. Graham Steele, a former Treasury Department assistant secretary, cautioned that internal company teams and outside evaluators could face pressure that compromises their independence. “We live in a democratic society. Are they the right ones to have the power to be able to make decisions that have broad, structural, social, and political consequences?” Steele said.