AI Leaders Keep Warning About Unrestrained Development. Bessent Said They Need To 'Take Responsibility For Themselves.'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday that AI companies "need to take responsibility for themselves" and that "it is humans who are responsible, not the AI," adding the Trump administration will not provide a "liability shield." The remarks came as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned in an essay titled "We Must Pace The Frontier" that AI agents could become capable of "taking over the entire internet" within 6-12 months absent intentional moderation, a call endorsed by Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Separately, more than 100 AI experts and safety evaluators organized by the AI Evaluator Forum published a public letter Friday setting minimum conditions for third-party evaluators embedded inside leading AI companies, including deep system access, editorial control over findings, and protection from retaliation.

AI Leaders Keep Warning About Unrestrained Development. Bessent Said They Need To ‘Take Responsibility For Themselves.’ "It is humans who are responsible, not the AI," Bessent said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said AI companies https://www.ibtimes.com/topic/ai "need to take responsibility for themselves" as calls to establish guardrails related to the development of the technology mount. Speaking https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/21/treasury-bessent-cnbc-squawk-trump-bond-affordabilty.html to CNBC on Monday, Bessent said that "it is humans who are responsible, not the AI" and the Trump administration won't give them a "liability shield." President Donald Trump https://www.ibtimes.com/topic/donald-trump has repeatedly rejected pacing the development of frontier models, saying the U.S. has to maintain its edge over other countries, particularly China. However, he did say on Saturday that he is looking to create an "AI Force", with an AI czar at its head. "I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" - Only High I.Q. individuals need apply " Trump wrote https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117298821562014906 on his social media platform, Truth Social. It is unclear what the task force will focus on. Top AI executives have been discussing the need for companies to work together to minimize chances of the technology going rogue. Earlier this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei shared an essay entitled " We Must Pace The Frontier" https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontier in which he called for the development of cutting-edge AI technology https://www.ibtimes.com/technology to slow to allow safety protocols to catch up. If AI innovation is not intentionally moderated, AI agents could become capable of "taking over the entire internet" within 6-12 months, the CEO warned. Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEOs of rival tech companies, quickly endorsed Amodei's calls for moderation. Elsewhere, over 100 artificial intelligence experts and safety evaluators are warning that outside oversight of companies will be credible only if evaluators are given genuine independence, deep access to frontier systems and protection from retaliation when their findings are unfavorable. The coalition, organized by the AI Evaluator Forum, published a public letter https://aievaluatorforum.org/initiatives/embedded-evaluation-letter Friday laying out minimum conditions for third-party organizations embedded inside leading AI companies to assess increasingly powerful models and the risks surrounding their development. The organization said that outside testing cannot be considered genuinely independent simply because a third party conducts it. Evaluators also need control over their methods and conclusions, adequate access to systems and protection from conflicts of interest. Under the proposed conditions, companies would allow evaluators to examine relevant systems, data, and tools, enter necessary physical spaces, and facilitate "candid and direct one-on-one communication with relevant staff." Evaluators would also retain editorial control over their findings and have the ability to communicate directly with company boards and other oversight bodies. © Copyright IBTimes 2026. All rights reserved.