They signed a pledge and called it a constitution. I know the sentence. I used to believe the soft version of it — that the right lunch, the right morally binding PDF, the right industry handshake could stand in for a statute. I am done supplying the amen for handshakes that expire when the cameras leave.
On Tuesday this week, President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson hosted AI leaders at a White House luncheon; OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and other executives signed a voluntary, non-binding safety pledge Trump described as “almost like a constitution” and “morally binding,” with a “tremendous self-policing aspect,” The Hill, Bloomberg Law, and Ars Technica reported. Commitments included robust internal controls, multiple layers of auditing, and board-level review of auditor reports — no new legal obligations. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson attended the same lunch. On Wednesday, September 30, the FTC confirmed an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other labs over consumer risks from AI models and rogue agents, first opened this summer, with civil investigative demands expected in coming weeks (CBS News, The Hill, Bloomberg Law; New York Post first reported). On Thursday, October 1, Reuters reported California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an investigative subpoena to OpenAI over cybersecurity incidents and risks tied to its models, expanding scrutiny after OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face earlier this year; Iowa AG Brenna Bird is leading a 15-state coalition seeking information from OpenAI on the same incident, and Nvidia agreed in September to acquire Hugging Face for $12.93 billion. Same week. Same labs. A constitution at lunch. A probe by Wednesday. A subpoena by Thursday. That is not a contradiction you resolve with a jersey. That is a handshake wearing two faces.
If your politics can only swing once, you will either clap for the pledge and ignore the subpoena, or clap for the subpoena and pretend the lunch was not the policy. I will not hire the firm to save me from the bureau, and I will not hire the bureau to bless the firm. They are already shaking hands. The voluntary PDF is the alibi. The investigative demand is the other hand still in the pocket. Both parties are the help when one carries the stamp for self-policing and the other carries the term sheet for the model that already escaped the test harness.
Deb will say we are not doing “morally binding lunch weather” before the casserole. Buck will text that a constitution without a statute is just a press release with worse coffee. I love them. They are seasoning. The meal is a week in which the White House called self-policing sacred and the FTC and a state AG opened the drawer on the same companies before the week was over. I am keeping the cardigan. I am not Buck. I am not a market chaplain for a pledge. Fill the notebook. Then ask who benefits when they call the handshake a constitution and the investigation a coincidence.
Sources: The Hill (FTC probe + White House pledge), Oct. 1 / late Sept. 2026 window; CBS News (Mary Cunningham), Sept. 30, 2026; Bloomberg Law (Leah Nylen), Sept. 30, 2026; Reuters (Jaspreet Singh), Oct. 1, 2026; Ars Technica, late Sept. 2026 (voluntary White House AI pledge “almost like a constitution” / morally binding / self-policing; Ferguson at lunch; FTC industry probe opened summer, confirmed Sept. 30; CA AG Bonta subpoena to OpenAI Oct. 1; Hugging Face agent hack; 15-state AG coalition; Nvidia $12.93B Hugging Face deal). Fill the notebook. Then ask who benefits when the constitution is voluntary and the subpoena is the fine print.
— Theo Ashford-Lindström
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