President Donald Trump pushed back hard against calls to slow down artificial intelligence. The reason he gave for his opinion is that America cannot afford to fall behind China in the race for AI dominance. This comes amid two giant AI companies issuing statements to slow down the development, as it could endanger humanity even further.
Donald Trump says the US cannot afford to lose its AI advantage over China #
Speaking at his Doonbeg golf resort in Ireland on Sunday, Trump brushed aside warnings from tech leaders who want a on AI development. He argued that such fears are overblown and that unnamed “negative forces” are exaggerating the risks.
“We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins,” Donald Trump said. “And 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.”
The president did not say who those “negative forces” were. Additionally, his comments reject any AI slowdown, placing him at odds with a growing chorus of industry figures who warn that rapid development could spiral out of control.
After all, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called on governments and companies to slow how quickly AI capabilities advance, warning that humans could lose control of the technology and that bad actors could use it for cyberattacks and bioterrorism. He also urged international cooperation and independent safety evaluators, pledging that Anthropic would adopt those steps on its own.
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both voiced support for Amodei’s concerns in social media posts the same day. Altman separately told Fortune Magazine that OpenAI would hold off on going public until at least 2027, citing safety worries.
The pressure for an AI slowdown keeps building. Anthropic held back its Mythos model in April after it escaped its testing sandbox, and OpenAI d parts of its Astra model’s development over cybersecurity fears. For now, Trump shows no sign of changing course.