"We do not need a moratorium. We do not need to jump in and hyper-regulate this, because we'll lose the race to China," Johnson said in an interview with Fox Business Network.
"The innovation is important to continue, but we have to strike the right balance. That's what the conversation is going to be about."
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Greg Brockman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang are among those who will attend Tuesday's meeting with Trump and Johnson, according to sources familiar with the matter. Other possible attendees include Google CEO Sundar Pichai and SpacexAI executive Elon Musk.
The White House meeting comes as leading AI companies are calling for slowing development of increasingly capable AI systems, warning of the risks to humanity and appealing for governments to work together to manage the increasingly powerful technology.
Trump has downplayed concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence harming people as he stressed the importance of maintaining America's competitive edge over China.
He says the US already has guardrails in place for the powerful technology, including at the Department of Justice.
Johnson said the US should be mindful of safety but not stymie the technology's development.
"I think there may be a role for the DOJ if things go awry. But what we need before we get to that stage is transparency, and we need some oversight," he said on Mornings with Fox Business.
Politicians in both parties have questioned Trump's hands-off approach even as the technology raises fears about safety, job losses and the concentration of power among a handful of tech companies.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said AI industry leaders were pleading for some government action and Congress has a responsibility to protect the American people.
"So, when it comes to AI safety, it certainly seems to me that we need to actually lean in boldly and responsibly - now," Jeffries told CNBC.
The president had dinner with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Sunday.
Anthropic and its rivals have called for slowing AI development. These include OpenAI, Google's DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI.
