Over the weekend, numerous tech CEOs shared warnings of artificial intelligence becoming an existential risk to humanity, which has garnered calls for stricter regulation of the tech industry. Now President Donald Trump is dismissing those fears as a “hoax” and disregarding the idea of tighter guardrails for AI companies.
In a series of posts on his social media site, Trump said “I am the Hoax Buster, and I’m right now breaking another hoax — That AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the world, and that robots will be marching into our cities, and getting rid of us all!” He compared AI concerns with other “hoaxes” such as climate change and his two impeachments. “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 said in another post.
The heads of three of the top AI companies, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of xAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, have recently posted about the need for slowing down the rapid pace of AI development, lest it destroy human civilization. Concern stems from recent reports that Anthropic blocked use of AI tools to develop bioweapons and that swarms of AI bots autonomously undertook massive hacking operations.
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Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.* A meeting with AI executives at the White House is reportedly in the works, according to Speaker Mike Johnson, who said Monday that “It will be soon. I think either end of this week or early next week. But wait and see.” It’s not yet clear if Trump will join, but Johnson suggested Sunday that Trump and AI executives to “go in a big room, close the door and sort this out.”
Meanwhile, Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer and top lobbyist, is meeting with a bipartisan mix of House and Senate lawmakers to discuss anxieties about AI, according to Politico as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon are joining forces at an event on Tuesday to push for human-controlled AI.