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A.I. Heads Agree to Self-Police A.I. Development After Meeting with Trump; Protests Continue Over Spain Despite Government's New Measures to Mitigate Housing Crisis. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired September 30, 2026 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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SALMA ABDELZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello, and a very warm welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London. Let's go to our headlines.

President Trump hosts some of the top leaders in artificial intelligence at the White House, how they are promising to keep the future safe from the possible dangers of A.I..

And Iran weighs in on the U.S. midterm elections. How the Revolutionary Guard Corps is hoping to influence voters going to the polls in the weeks ahead.

And frustration boils over in Spain. Protesters march through the capital and other cities demanding housing reform.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: I want to start with a new White House agreement that was signed on Tuesday. It gives the responsibility of regulating artificial intelligence to the companies making those A.I. models.

Now, some of the top leaders in tech joined U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a voluntary agreement vowing to better self-police their creations. It's a commitment the President referred to as, quote, "morally binding."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's almost like a constitution in a way. And the biggest people in the world signed that. And I signed it as President and it really is a form of protection.

REPORTER: Is this accord that everybody signed, is it binding in any way?

TRUMP: I think it's morally binding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, President Trump has largely dismissed growing concerns about the dangers of A.I., suggesting that the government could not slow down on its development or it would risk failing, falling behind China. The company leaders who signed this agreement are vowing to create better internal cybersecurity controls and work with independent operators to review any problems that might arise.

Joining me now is Elena Simperl, she is the co-director of the King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence to discuss this agreement further. Good morning, first of all, to you. Thank you so much for joining us on this program.

And I really want to begin there with just your initial take on this self-policing agreement. Does it meet the calls that we've heard from Anthropic's Dario Amodei and others for independent oversight?

ELENA SIMPERL, CO-DIRECTOR, KING'S INSTITUTE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Yes. Good morning to you too, Salma, and everyone.

I think this is a symbolic rather than a concrete measure. The one interesting and important component of it for me is that written commitment to independent external auditors, growing that industry and making sure we establish the testing standards that would make it less likely for the cyber incidents that we have heard about this summer to happen is really important.

But the agreement at the same time says nothing about who qualifies these auditors, what standards do they apply. So I fear that in the lack of regulation, the industry needs to come together and establish these standards themselves.

ABDELAZIZ: You're calling on the industry to establish these regulations themselves. But what the industry is calling for here is for independent oversight, is for other parties outside of the industry, essentially, to have the teeth and to put those rules into place. Does this agreement even begin that process? Or is it, as you just said, largely symbolic and without teeth?

SIMPERL: It is largely symbolic. President Trump said it is morally binding, I don't really know what that means in practice. But I think one of the participants at the summit said that this means that the companies will be grading each other's homework.

Now, this could work in an industry that is built on trust, but could also lead to collusion. At the same time, I think we have seen over the past weeks and months that there is a healthy industry of independent companies and independent testers that could step in and help Frontier A.I. labs start building on the standards that we're talking about.

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And I think last week as well, we have heard from Google, Antropic, and OpenAI that they do want to establish an independent institution to start potentially working on these standards as early as this year or in 2027.

ABDELAZIZ: So there may be something that comes out of opening the conversation and the collaboration that we're seeing here, as you mentioned. I also want to ask you about this very curious demand from President Trump to change the name of artificial intelligence to superintelligence. He says he's going to sign an agreement on that, he even brought it up with the Chinese leader last week.

Why the name change? What does that tell us? Is all of this a little bit of a performance ahead of the midterms potentially here?

SIMPERL: I've been working in artificial intelligence for the last 15 years. A.I. stands for many different types of computational and statistical methods.

I think this would have been an opportunity to, if we're renaming it, to rename it for something closer to what it is, which is advanced computational statistics. I think, again, this is a symbolic measure.

It changes the words, it doesn't change the technology or the risks. Now, definitions matter in legal terms for the law, and we have already a definition of artificial or super or frontier intelligence, which was established by the OECD, I think, in 2018 or 2019, and the U.S. endorsed it. So we already have a definition, and we have names and words to point to this technology all the time.

I think what really matters also in conversation about the race towards artificial general intelligence or super intelligence is to consider that we're not just talking about two parties, about the U.S. and China, but we're also talking about a range of other players, because we have in this industry very powerful open weights, open source models that anyone can use and repurpose, and these models are only six to nine months behind to what the U.S. companies are producing.

ABDELAZIZ: So let me dig into that deeper, because as you just mentioned, of course, it is not just the U.S. and China. This is a competitive environment here when it comes to A.I.

One of the things, of course, that some experts have been calling for is to slow the pace. Is that what you would call for as well? And do you see any signs that that is happening or that it could happen?

SIMPERL: And we see some signs, but we don't really know what the reasons for this are. We had the same conversation about misalignment between what developer wants and what A.I. systems do a few years ago, just after ChatGPT was launched.

We have seen this year a few examples from Antropic earlier in March or April and now from OpenAI who have then decided to cancel or postpone releases of their models in the presence of more and more evidence that the technology is jailbreaking, so to speak. So it is hacking into actual companies and government websites and could potentially lead to much more serious incidents than the ones that we are aware of. So there are some signs of slowdown. But at the same time, as I was saying, there is a lot of powerful technology openly available out there that anyone could use. I think one part of this conversation that we don't speak enough is the costs of mounting the types of cyber attacks that we have read about in the media in the last months and these costs are significant.

The type of cyber incidents we have seen that are now caused by A.I. are not new in their nature. So with better cyber defenses, also potentially facilitated through A.I. technology, companies and governments can defend themselves.

Lots of the incidents we have heard about were due to very basic failures, both on the side of the testers, the frontier A.I. lab companies, or the organizations that have been hacked into. But these are dangers that are real.

So I don't think these are conspiracy theories, I don't think this is a hoax. And each one of us can think of a cyber incident that maybe did not lead to loss of life, but caused fuel shortages and caused disruption in supply chains of businesses.

In the U.K., we had last year a case that was not caused by A.I., I think it was Lambert. The costs were real and were mentioned by the Bank of England in the GDP reporting.

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So these are not conspiracy theories. These are things that really cause harm. And OpenAI itself disclosed a list of U.S. government websites that its models try to hack into.

And say, on the one hand, this is a call for every organization to use A.I. to defend themselves and also for the industry in A.I. to continue to establish these better standards that we badly need.

ABDELAZIZ: Better standards are badly needed from Elena Simperl there, who describes this new agreement from the White House as largely symbolic. Thank you so much for your analysis.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is urging Americans to vote against President Trump and his allies in the upcoming midterm elections.

The conflict with Iran is still deeply unpopular with U.S. voters. But President Trump claims the U.S. is winning the war. That appears to have no end in sight.

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REPORTER: Is Iran, in your opinion, about to give up, about to concede, surrender?

TRUMP: They're doing very poorly, I don't know if they're going to give up yet. But they'll give up. But they're doing very poorly. You know, we took more oil out of the Hormuz Strait over the last

couple of days than at any point in history, including long before we had the war to stop the nuclear weapon. And this is to stop the nuclear weapon, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, in President Trump's latest moves, the U.S. Treasury and State Departments announced new sanctions against 13 individuals and entities. This is part of its economic pressure campaign against Iran.

The U.S. claims that some of those targeted are based in Russia, China, and Pakistan, and helped Iran procure weapons and components for those weapons. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in part, the U.S. Treasury "will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran's enablers."

We are also learning more about the Israeli Prime Minister's secret meeting with the United Arab Emirates President. An Israeli source tells CNN that him and Netanyahu shared new intelligence that indicates Iran is making progress on rebuilding its nuclear program, including new construction at the Pickaxe Mountain site. The source added that Netanyahu also said that Israel assesses Iran could initiate an attack in the region in the coming weeks.

For more on all of this, we're joined now by Paula Hancocks, live from Abu Dhabi. Good morning to you, Paula. So we're seeing yet another round of sanctions. It seems part of President Trump's maximum pressure campaign on Iran, but we're also seeing reports that separately, U.S. and Iranian officials spoke with mediators this week.

Could you give me a state of play here on diplomacy and the conflict?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Salma, we know that the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, left New York after talks on Monday evening. And he said that he was waiting for Qatari mediators to give him an indication as to whether the U.S. was going to accept a revised proposal that Tehran had put forward.

So this is what we're waiting for at this point. He said that Tehran will then, on balance, look at the U.S. response and see if the process can be moved forward. So diplomacy is still ongoing, certainly through the mediators.

What we understand as well is that Tehran wants to focus on sanctions being lifted, on frozen assets being released on the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which is having an impact to be lifted as well. Whereas the United States wants to focus on the nuclear program. We have heard from U.S. officials, they are very clear that if the nuclear program is not addressed, there will not be a deal.

So that's the diplomacy at this point. Now, we have heard more details as well about that meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Emirati leader, Mohammed bin Zayed, on Sunday. It was the first acknowledgement by the Emiratis that there has been this high-level meeting.

We understand from a source familiar with this meeting that Netanyahu brought with him details and intelligence that the Israelis believe that the Iranians are trying to rebuild their nuclear program, specifically at Pickaxe Mountain. This is about 140 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

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It is an area that the U.S. believes Iran would use if it were to rebuild its nuclear program, it's an area as well that the U.S. President has threatened to bomb on a number of occasions.

So this intelligence was shared with the Emirati leader. And we understand from two sources with knowledge of this meeting as well that a senior Saudi security official also attended this meeting. So we're hearing a narrative from the Israeli Prime Minister at this point, also suggesting that Iran could carry out an attack in this region in the coming weeks.

We do know that Netanyahu was not necessarily supportive of the ceasefire when it came about between the U.S. and Iran. Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: Paula Hancocks there on the behind-the-scenes diplomacy and intelligence sharing taking place across the region. Thank you so much.

It's the end of a long and painful chapter in Iraq's history as U.S. forces withdraw their remaining troops today. The Iraqi government announced it will mark the end of the 23-year military presence with a four-day national holiday. Official institutions will be closed through Saturday to mark what's being called the country's sovereignty days.

While Iraq is celebrating the troop withdrawal, there are concerns that it could result in a security vacuum. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says, quote, the hands of a foreign actor were involved in the suspected terror plot targeting a UK air base used by the U.S. military.

On Monday, President Trump also suggested foreign interference, saying the alleged plot might be linked to Iran. Now, five men were arrested Saturday on suspicion of terror and explosives offenses. The men who have not been identified have now been released on bail by U.K. authorities.

No motive has been revealed. But in new developments, according to U.K. media, one of the men called police shortly before the arrests. The base in question is used by U.S. long-range bombers in its war against Iran.

Now, Tehran has denied any involvement as U.K. counter-terror police continue their investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LAURENCE TAYLOR, SENIOR U.K. COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICE OFFICER: Now, those vehicles, as I explained yesterday, have been subject to extensive examination with the support of military assets and forensic experts. And we can confirm that no improvised explosive devices have been found.

We have found a quantity of an accelerant, petrol, and we have recovered that as part of our investigation. As part of our investigation, we have also searched properties in London. And those searches are now finished.

And we're also now reducing the investigative scenes around RAF Fairford. And we expect them to be closed completely tomorrow.

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ABDELAZIZ: We have so much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." Still to come, Spain proposes new housing measures in response to massive protests but some say it is not enough. Details are just ahead.

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ABDELAZIZ: Those are protesters camping on the streets of Madrid to express their frustration over Spain's housing crisis. The camp remains even after an 87-year-old woman, whose eviction became a rallying point for protesters, has been allowed to return home.

Lawmakers have responded by proposing new renter protection measures. CNN's Pau Mosquera has all the details for us.

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PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The measures adopted this Tuesday by the Spanish government have surprised many camping out at Madrid's Puerto del Sol. Not so much because of the substance, but because of the way they have been presented.

Protesters had initially expected all the proposals to be presented under one single decree. Instead, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government has decided to go ahead with all the proposals with two different texts.

This is one including the bulk of the measures, with measures like a ban on evicting vulnerable families until 2030, and another one restricting the purchase of homes for speculative proposals. The other one is including a proposal for making rental contracts indefinite.

The general understanding is that they have done it this way because they want to ensure that the bulk of the measures gets the approval of the parliament once the decrees get to the congress to be ratified, while the other text that could include measures that could be controversial or create some disagreement gets to the parliament in a separate way.

This move has surprised and actually divided many of those camping out here downtown Madrid and they say that they now have to study both decrees as to see how far do these texts go towards meeting their expectations and also whether they continue, they extend this encampment further days. Whatever they decide, they are clear in one point that they will continue to mobilize and they already have called for more demonstrations over the next few days.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Madrid.

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ABDELAZIZ: We have breaking news just in from the Middle East. Sources tell CNN that a violent incident between two pilots prompted a FlyDubai flight to divert to Saudi Arabia. Now the aircraft broadcast an emergency signal, this is according to sources, and the plane's altitude dropped sharply within just a few minutes.

An IDF spokesperson says that Israeli fighter jets were scrambled as standard procedure, but an Israeli official says the incident is not a hijacking.

The Supreme Court is once again allowing the Trump administration to resume its controversial deportation policy. What that ruling means for migrants in the U.S. just ahead.

And Morocco has a new prime minister. Why the appointment is being hailed as a historic moment. That's coming up.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back, I'm Salma Abdelaziz. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

Several top A.I. executives have signed a voluntary agreement to police themselves amid recent concerns over the safety of the technology. They met at the White House on Tuesday for a summit hosted by President Trump. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the agreement involves multiple layers of internal and external auditing of A.I. models and robust controls to detect any issues with the technology.

It is the end of a long and painful chapter in Iraq's history. As U.S. forces withdraw their remaining troops today, the Iraqi government announced it will mark the end of the 23-year U.S. military presence with a four-day national holiday. Official institutions will be closed through Saturday to mark what is now being called the country's sovereignty days. Remnants of Polo are dissipating over northwestern Mexico after the system weakened from a tropical storm earlier. Polo first made landfall as a hurricane Tuesday on the Baja California peninsula. Moisture from the system is now moving north towards the U.S. where heavy rain is already triggering flood warnings in southern New Mexico.

The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to resume its very controversial deportation program. The temporary ruling allows the government to send migrants to countries other than their own, including places where they have no ties. CNN's Joan Biskupic explains the concerns activist groups are raising.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the Trump administration another win for its anti- immigrant agenda and effort to deport migrants to countries other than their homeland. The disputed policy in this case does not give migrants a chance to claim they could be tortured in these countries where they have no ties or should raise any other human rights concerns. Lower court judges had blocked the policy.

The conservative Supreme Court majority revived it on Tuesday without any explanation in an unsigned order and over the dissent of the three liberal justices on the nine-member bench. But it seems the dissenters pulled one concession from the conservatives who control the court and have largely favored Trump, the Trump administration, on immigration. The court scheduled arguments in the case for this December on an expedited schedule.

The justices said they will decide whether U.S. lower court judges actually have jurisdiction to hear claims against the removal policy as happened here and whether, more importantly, these third-country deportations are lawful. The administration developed this alternative last year after experiencing difficulty attempting to quickly deport undocumented migrants to their home countries. Some 25,000 migrants have already been flown to places where they have no connection.

Tuesday's decision marked the third time the high court has let the administration proceed with these flights. Lower court judges have been more sympathetic and found that the Convention Against Torture requires first some notice to migrants and the ability to raise a credible claim that they might be tortured. The administration has said it has received blanket assurances from the designated countries that no one deported there will be tortured.

But lawyers representing the group of migrants in this case say that the record actually shows that some who were sent to these third countries have faced prolonged detention, beatings, and sexual assault. The case will be argued in December with a decision likely by late spring 2027. In the meantime, the flights can start up again.

Joan Biskupic, CNN, Washington. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: The king of Morocco has appointed the country's first-ever woman Prime Minister. The royal palace says she was appointed after her liberal centrist party came out on top in the September 23rd parliamentary election.

The new Prime Minister is a lawyer who was housing minister in the outgoing government and the mayor of Marrakesh. She is set to lead talks to form a coalition government and submit a list of cabinet members for the king's approval.

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There is so much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including why one of the world-famous Six Flags roller coasters in Southern California is shutting down. We will have the details for you ahead.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

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The passage of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is still below pre-war levels, but new data from Kpler shows average oil and petroleum product flows were just under 80 percent of pre-war levels last week. And according to JPMorgan Chase, total Middle Eastern crude flows through Hormuz and around it are at 98 percent.

The consulting firm McKinsey says an estimated 11 million American workers may need to find an entirely new career in the next decade due to rising automation and the use of artificial intelligence. However, McKinsey expects A.I. could create more jobs than it kills in that time. But many of those jobs would be in A.I.-related fields and would require what it says would be perhaps the largest and most sustained workforce transformation in American history.

U.S. President Donald Trump's ban on Canadian booze is now in effect, it impacts $800 million worth of Canadian alcoholic beverages, the latest shot in the President's trade war. But there are expectations: Whiskey and liquors are exempt in containers larger than four liters, but the ban will be virtually impossible to get around for beer in bottles, cans and kegs.

The Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Southern California says it will permanently close its most famous roller coaster. Now, this move comes about a month after a CNN investigation exposed a long history of life altering injuries and deaths linked to the X2 ride.

CNN documented more than a dozen reports of serious injuries and hospitalizations associated with that ride, including at least two deaths. Two women ended up in the same emergency room with brain injuries after riding the roller coaster just six days apart in July. And last month, attorneys suing Six Flags said more than 100 people claimed they suffered brain injuries from the X2 ride just in the past two years alone. The 2028 Olympic torch will make history by traveling through all 50 states before arriving in the host city, Los Angeles. The torch will be lit at the game's birthplace of Olympia, Greece. It'll then begin its journey to Atlanta, which hosted the last U.S.-based Olympics in 1996.

Organizers say it will be one of the largest relays in Olympic history. The full route is set to be announced next year.

Thank you so much for watching, I'm Salma Abdelaziz. "World Sport" is coming up next, then I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.

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