Big Tech's AI auditors will only see what they're shown

On Sept. 29, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and xAI signed an accord on the most advanced AI models that U.S. President Donald Trump called "morally binding." Each company has promised it will "partner with an independent external auditor or evaluator" and have independent board members review the auditors' reports and make sure problems get fixed.

Outside audits are a good idea, and I'm glad to see them in there. But the accord says nothing about who chooses the auditors, what they can examine or whether any findings are made public; there's no penalty for ignoring it. As it stands, each company picks its own auditor and decides what that auditor gets to look at.