Exclusive: Bessent to keynote AI summit
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will keynote an AI summit on Oct. 21 hosted by the newly formed Prometheus Initiative, according to an invitation shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Government officials and industry players are eager to tout the societal benefits they're expecting from AI and quell concerns around job displacement, disinformation and more.
- The invitation calls the event the inaugural "AI Summit on American Prosperity."
- Oct. 21 is also the due date for the administration to establish and implement a program to promote AI export packages, according to one executive order.
Driving the news: The event "will spotlight how America's AI revolution is ushering in a new era of growth and innovation — one that uplifts the American worker and drives prosperity for all," the invitation states.
- The Prometheus Initiative is a group of executives from corporate America and "private citizens" that formed this summer to focus on highlighting the benefits of AI, according to Marcy Simon of strategic communications firm Agent of Change.
- The AI summit is sponsored by Palantir, Amazon, Nasdaq, Perplexity, Groq, Reflection AI, and ID.Me, as well as IBM, Eightco, BitMine, Ramp, and Davis Polk & Wardwell.
- The Prometheus Initiative is planning to host more AI events around health, regulation and other topics, per Simon.
Speakers at the Oct. 21 AI summit include:
- Jacob Helberg, the former Palantir adviser who the Senate confirmed on Tuesday to serve as the State Department's top economic policy official.
- Sriram Krishnan, White House senior policy adviser for AI.
- Paras Malik, the Treasury Department's chief AI officer.
- Shyam Sankar, Palantir chief technology officer.
Flashback: At a July AI summit called "Winning the AI Race," the White House unveiled its AI action plan and President Trump signed various AI executive orders aimed at driving growth and maintaining a global competitive edge.
- That event was hosted by Hill & Valley Forum co-founder Helberg and Trump's AI and crypto czar David Sacks.
- The Hill & Valley forum is not involved in the October event.
