President Donald Trump to Award Elon Musk the National Medal of Science
President Donald Trump is set to award Elon Musk the National Medal of Science on Thursday, among five other tech leaders. Notably, Sam Altman from OpenAI and Dario Amodei from Anthropic, prominent figures in AI, did not make the list.
Recipients of the Awards
Musk, alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and AMD CEO Lisa Su, will receive the science medal. The technology medal will go to Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Satya Nadella of Microsoft. The ceremony will take place at the White House during the “Science: A New Golden Age Summit,” focusing on the topic of superintelligence, which refers to AI that surpasses human capabilities.
A White House spokesperson emphasized the importance of these recipients in maintaining America’s leadership in innovation.
Absence of Altman and Amodei
The reasoning behind the omission of Altman and Amodei has not been clarified by the White House. This announcement came shortly after OpenAI revealed advancements in solving complex math problems using its internal ChatGPT model. Altman regards AI as heralding a “new era of discovery.”
In contrast, Anthropic has faced difficulties regarding its relationship with Washington, especially after the Pentagon categorized it as a supply-chain risk due to its refusal to let its AI models control autonomous weapons. Amodei recently advocated for caution in developing powerful AI systems, a stance Trump has opposed, claiming it could aid China’s technological advancements.
The upcoming ceremony will highlight leaders in chip, cloud, and rocket technologies while leaving out the heads of major AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
