Meta CEO Zuckerberg tells Trump a national AI regulator is a flawed idea

Mark Zuckerberg has made his position on AI regulation about as subtle as a billboard on the Las Vegas Strip. The Meta CEO told President Trump directly that creating a national AI regulator would be a mistake, adding his voice to a growing chorus of tech executives who view centralized oversight as a threat to American innovation rather than a safeguard for it. The Trump administration has separately ruled out establishing any kind of central licensing agency for artificial intelligence, drawing a clear line against anything resembling an FDA for AI models. Open source as the anti-regulation play Zuckerberg’s argument isn’t just “regulation bad.” He’s been warning consistently throughout 2026 about the risks of what he calls “regulatory capture,” the phenomenon where the agencies designed to police an industry end up being controlled by the very companies they’re supposed to oversee. In a Financial Times interview on July 29, Zuckerberg acknowledged that peer reviews of AI systems could have value. But he drew a sharp distinction between collaborative oversight and a permanent government body with licensing authority. Meta has bet heavily on open-weight AI models, releasing its Ll...