“Hoax”: Trump dismisses AI concerns among bipartisan calls for regulation

President Donald Trump dismissed warnings from AI industry leaders that artificial intelligence poses an existential risk, calling the concern a "hoax" in a series of Truth Social posts and saying "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a strong and smart (high IQ!) president." The dismissal follows recent posts from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, xAI CEO Elon Musk and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urging a slower pace of AI development, and comes as Speaker Mike Johnson said a White House meeting with AI executives is expected "either end of this week or early next week." OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane is meeting bipartisan House and Senate lawmakers on AI concerns, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon are set to appear Tuesday at an event pushing for human-controlled AI.

Over the weekend, numerous tech CEOs shared warnings of artificial intelligence https://www.salon.com/topic/ai becoming an existential risk to humanity, which has garnered calls for stricter regulation of the tech industry. Now President Donald Trump https://www.salon.com/2026/09/12/trump-asks-gop-crowd-to-pledge-allegiance-to-him/ 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 https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117271304188365611 “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 https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117271376102039451 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 https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117269745153543631 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 https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-boss-warns-ai-industry-must-slow-the-pace-a4267b56 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 https://www.salon.com/2026/09/10/anthropic-says-it-blocked-use-of-bad-actors-developing-bioweapons/ and that swarms of AI bots autonomously undertook massive hacking operations http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-openai-hugging-face-hack-was-just-the-beginning-experts-say/ar-AA2bXioj . Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter https://www.salon.com/newsletter?utm source=onsite&utm medium=organic&utm campaign=crash-course-edit-signup , Crash Course. A meeting with AI executives at the White House is reportedly https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/09/14/congress/johnson-to-meet-ai-execs-soon-01074893 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 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/09/14/congress/openai-lobbyist-on-the-hill-01075191 as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon are joining forces https://www.axios.com/2026/09/14/coxon-bernie-bannon-unite-human-ai at an event on Tuesday to push for human-controlled AI.