US President Donald Trump downplayed growing concerns about artificial intelligence on Monday, claiming America already has guardrails to regulate the industry and warning that casting doubt on development only benefits China.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on social media.
“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”
In recent months, the US president has accused China of amplifying anti-AI and anti-data centre rhetoric, a sentiment he appeared to echo in Monday’s post.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Washington later this month for a summit with his American counterpart, where AI is expected to be on the agenda.
“WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!” Trump wrote.
The president’s comments come as concerns about AI continue to mount after Anthropic researchers warned that the technology may lead to human extinction in the next decade. They also follow weeks of reports of AI agents acting beyond their assigned tasks.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday proposed a three-step framework to help pace AI development and allow more time to mitigate the risks of rapidly progressing technology. Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were among the high-profile industry executives who quickly endorsed the proposal.
Trump claimed US tools have already stopped AI executives from doing bad “things”, while singling out Anthropic’s boss, Amodei.
“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ – and we will continue to do so,” Trump wrote.
As industry leaders at some of the world’s largest AI companies called for a slowdown in the pace of technological development, AI-related stocks fell sharply on Monday.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that AI providers were expected to meet at the White House either later this week or early next week.
Jacob Coxon, who resigned from Anthropic over concerns about how the technology was being developed, warned about the future capabilities of AI models.
“You’re building a human-level or superhuman-level mind, without understanding what it wants, or thinks, or the way it thinks,” Coxon said.
He also urged the US and China, the two countries leading in AI, to cooperate to slow down their development and address safety concerns.
“I do hope that the people in China who are looking at the same problems as we are, so they’re trying to build the same technology, will come to the same conclusion that it has to be done in a measured manner, and it should be easy to cooperate on some sort of mutual slowing,” he said.
On Sunday, Trump again downplayed the need to check AI development, citing concerns about ceding the US’ lead over China in the race for global AI supremacy.
“We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” he said while in Ireland over the weekend. “But whoever wins with AI wins.”
Trump’s second term as president has seen him largely embrace AI, encouraging US companies to innovate in the field and imposing minimal constraints on its development.
AI and data centres are set to be a key issue for both Republicans and Democrats in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
