Tech Giants Gain Private Access to Federal Health Policy as Trump Targets AI Critics

Leading technology companies including Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple, and Google gained unprecedented direct access to federal health officials through a government-run messaging platform. The Trump administration invited these firms to shape policy governing artificial intelligence in healthcare through a private Slack workspace, bypassing traditional public regulatory channels and transparency requirements.

A cadre of elite technology executives, financiers, and high-level Trump administration officials spent a year quietly charting an extraordinary campaign to persuade Americans to use apps and other AI-powered tools to manage their healthcare and medical records. As that campaign unfolded, administration officials granted tech companies an unusual opportunity to nudge the nation’s health department toward a loosely regulated future for AI health apps in which the government reimburses them for services as it does medical professionals.

In February, federal health officials invited those businesses to a listening session on conversational AI products for patients, such as chatbots. Representatives from at least 35 industry organizations attended the meeting held by the Food and Drug Administration, which bears responsibility for regulating health apps as medical devices. The agency prompted companies in advance to explain their AI products and how they access patients’ sensitive medical information.

Closed-Door Policy Sessions Bypass Public Oversight

The meeting did not appear on the FDA’s public calendar or regulatory notices, nor did officials invite the public. Rather, the invitation for a select group to help shape federal policy governing AI in healthcare arrived through the chat room on the messaging service Slack. Legal experts said the chat room resembles a federal advisory panel, which would be required to operate in public view.

“This is a great opportunity to support HHS’ goals and share your state-of-the-art understanding of safe Conversational AI development and monitoring to help FDA shape future guidance,” CMS senior policy adviser Morgan Taylor wrote in the Slack workspace.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has not formally announced the chat room through federal regulatory channels, though CMS officials have discussed it at industry conferences. KFF Health News reviewed thousands of Slack messages, meeting transcripts, and video recordings that reveal how the Trump administration granted the industry a direct line to top government officials, including former head of the Department of Government Efficiency Amy Gleason.

The conversation took place behind the scenes as federal health officials publicly worked to integrate AI and other technology into nearly every aspect of healthcare, a plan they’ve branded as a comprehensive transformation initiative. The private nature of these discussions raises questions about regulatory capture and whether public health interests receive adequate representation in policy formation.

Trump Declares AI Critics “The Enemy”

While tech leaders secured private access to health policy, President Donald Trump escalated public rhetoric against artificial intelligence skeptics. If people don’t widely embrace AI out of fear or a godlike savior complex, the technology’s biggest champions will try something else: labeling critics “the enemy.”

Trump described people who don’t embrace his terminology change through executive order as hostile forces. He posted on social media Thursday that “The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!”

As noted by Axios, the White House still uses the term “AI” including on websites like ai.gov, though officials updated that website Thursday with “SI.gov” in massive text. The URL remains ai.gov, however, with SI.gov leading to an error page, Axios reported.

Tech Billionaires Embrace Presidential Messaging

Tech billionaires quickly embraced the new terminology. This week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said AI is “no more” and promised to change the name of his AI company, SpaceXAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX, to SpaceXSI. More recently, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos shared his approval in a Wednesday interview with Fox News.

“I do like SI, because ‘artificial’ is not a very flattering thing. Like, nobody wants an artificial sweetener, artificial flavoring,” Bezos said. “Artificial sort of means fake.”

Peter Thiel, founder of the tech company Palantir that aggregates data used in federal mass surveillance and deportation programs, has gone as far to describe AI’s critics as “the Antichrist.” Apocalyptic eschatology has long been an interest of Thiel’s, who has made the Antichrist a central topic of secretive lectures he’s given behind closed doors. Thiel doesn’t seem to believe in an Antichrist like in the “Book of Revelation,” but rather as a force that imposes a one-world government and stifles technological development.

Industry Leaders Frame Opposition as Political Theater

In leaked recordings obtained by Politico’s Decoded of Thiel’s speeches in Nashville in late September and published Thursday, the tech mogul claimed former President Barack Obama and Pope Francis only oppose AI to boost their popularity, which is apparently something they would need according to Thiel’s assessment.

“Many people know that AI is politically unpopular, and want to leverage that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel said. “Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows the Democrats have no ideas, but they can at least oppose AI.”

Thiel added that AI represents a threat that opposition figures exploit for political gain. His remarks suggest a coordinated effort among tech leaders to reframe policy debates about AI regulation and oversight as political posturing rather than legitimate concerns about technology’s societal impact.

Corporate Priorities Shape Technology Policy Decisions

Technology leaders spent the past few years asking what AI could do, but now they face a more consequential question: What should we do with it? The market offers no shortage of models, agents, platforms, and promises, yet what leaders lack is certainty about which investments will last, how to scale without creating chaos, and what must change inside IT to turn experimentation into business value.

Most organizations do not have an AI opportunity problem but rather a prioritization problem. The challenge involves deciding which investments will create durable value as AI technologies, vendors, and business expectations continue to evolve. Technology leaders must also connect AI investments to transformation outcomes rather than simply generating new experiments.

The confluence of private industry access to federal policymaking, aggressive rhetoric against critics, and billionaire advocacy for reduced oversight creates an environment where corporate priorities may overwhelm public interest considerations in emerging technology regulation. The lack of transparency in the Slack workspace discussions and the absence of public participation mechanisms raise fundamental questions about democratic accountability in technology governance.