US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that leading American artificial intelligence companies would make a public “contribution” to the country, offering few details but fuelling speculation about a greater government role in the booming industry.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday morning, Trump said tech companies “making tremendous amounts of money” will be making “a contribution to the people of our country”.
“We’re going to have guardrails ... You know that. But [AI] can be used for tremendous good. And mostly good, and some bad,” he said.
Trump suggested discussions were under way within his administration over such public “contributions”, telling Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “You know what I’m talking about”, before declining to explain what form they might take.
The remarks come weeks after the Trump administration tightened its oversight of frontier AI companies, reflecting growing concerns over national security and Chinese access to cutting-edge US technology.
Last month, it issued an emergency export control directive that forced Claude model developer Anthropic to suspend global access to its latest flagship models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
Trump’s comments are also likely to fuel speculation following a Financial Times report last week that ChatGPT developer OpenAI had proposed giving the US government a 5 per cent stake as part of discussions aimed at reducing political hurdles.
Citing two people familiar with the talks, the newspaper said other leading AI companies could make similar offers under the proposal.
Neither Trump nor the White House indicated whether Monday’s remarks referred to that proposal or another mechanism.
Trump added that Anthropic was “very good” in how it responded to the administration’s export control measure, which led to the redeployment of its flagship models last week.
“The bad we have to stop. But it’s a massive industry and I think things are going to happen,” he said.
US AI companies have been subject to heightened scrutiny in Washington as public backlash has also increased amid growing fears about the negative impact of AI on jobs and society.
This has sparked calls for AI companies to share their gains with the wider public, with US Senator Bernie Sanders last month introducing a bill that would require leading US AI companies to pay a stock tax equal to half their equity.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic are gearing up for blockbuster public listings, with current private market valuations of US$852 billion and US$965 billion, respectively.
While hinting at further government intervention in the AI industry, Trump on Monday also emphasised his overall support for beating China in the two countries’ growing tech war, highlighting his deregulatory agenda for both the domestic AI and cryptocurrency industries.
“We’re leading China substantially in AI,” he said. “We’re leading everybody. Crypto is the same thing. If we didn’t do it, China would do it.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
