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PBS NewsHour – Politics — 2026-06-10 18:55:00 — www.pbs.org
Trump Promises AI Companies Will “Give Back” to the Public, Claims Benefits Will Make Americans “Very Rich”
In the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to meet with executives from several leading artificial intelligence companies to discuss the idea of “giving back” to the public. “We’re talking about giving back something to the public, and if we do that, the public will become very rich,” Trump said. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”
Trump’s comments come as the AI industry faces growing scrutiny over its potential to disrupt the labor market and concentrate wealth. Companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have recently announced initiatives to ensure the economic gains from AI are more widely shared, including proposals for public wealth funds and universal basic income funded by taxes on AI companies.
However, Trump’s assertion that such measures will make the public “very rich” stands in stark contrast to warnings from industry leaders about the risks of job displacement and economic inequality. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, has cautioned that AI could cause much larger and longer-lasting disruptions to the labor market than previous technological advancements, and that the challenge will be finding ways for everyone to share in the benefits—not simply incentivizing growth.
While Trump has signed an executive order establishing a framework for government oversight of advanced AI systems, the details of how AI companies would “give back” to the public remain unclear. Industry proposals have focused on research funds, fellowships, and policy incentives, but there is little evidence so far to support the claim that these efforts alone will make the public “very rich.”
As the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee prepares to hold a hearing on AI and the American economy, the gap between optimistic promises and the complex reality of AI’s impact on jobs and wealth distribution is coming into sharper focus. Trump’s statements highlight the ongoing debate over how to ensure that the benefits of AI are shared broadly—and whether rhetoric will be matched by meaningful action.