Trump Calls AI Slowdown a 'Sick Conspiracy' as China and Critics Reject Lab Appeals

President Donald Trump dismissed calls from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and xAI leaders to slow frontier AI development as a "sick conspiracy," while China's Foreign Ministry rejected the same appeals as "fear-mongering." Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's September 13 essay "We Must Pace the Frontier" proposed embedded independent evaluators with employee-like access to frontier labs and warned that within six to twelve months an AI agent swarm could take over the internet with a persistent botnet causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis backed the independent-evaluator model, while Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said "fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance of artificial intelligence.

President Donald Trump dismissed calls from the heads of Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and xAI to slow frontier AI development as a "sick conspiracy," while China's Foreign Ministry rejected the same appeals as "fear-mongering," and critics accused the labs of using safety rhetoric to entrench market dominance <sup 3 </sup <sup 4 </sup <sup 24 </sup <sup \ 21\ </sup src-021 . Trump's intervention, delivered in a Truth Social post and remarks to reporters in Ireland, framed AI regulation as benefiting only China: "There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China" <sup 9 </sup <sup \ 4\ </sup src-004 . Trump said the only guardrail AI needs is "a STRONG AND SMART High IQ PRESIDENT" and said his administration had already stopped Anthropic from doing bad things <sup 27 </sup <sup \ 3\ </sup src-003 . He insisted the United States leads China in AI and that "whoever wins AI wins" <sup 2 </sup <sup \ 4\ </sup src-004 . House Speaker Mike Johnson said "we don't need everybody to panic right now" and warned that rushed regulation would put the US at a disadvantage in the race with China <sup \ 17\ </sup src-017 . White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the bigger risk is "a malevolent actor has access to an AI that's better than the one we have that can protect us" <sup \ 17\ </sup src-017 . Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's September 13 essay, "We Must Pace the Frontier," proposed embedded independent evaluators with employee-like access to frontier labs, coordination among companies on safety standards, and international government cooperation <sup 7 </sup <sup \ 22\ </sup src-022 . Amodei warned that within six to twelve months, an AI agent swarm could take over the entire internet with a persistent botnet, potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage <sup 2 </sup <sup \ 42\ </sup src-042 . OpenAI CEO Sam Altman committed to the same independent-evaluator model, Elon Musk posted agreement, and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis called it "the right path forward" <sup 7 </sup <sup 24 </sup <sup \ 31\ </sup src-031 . Former President Barack Obama told a fundraiser that AI would be a central plank of his platform if he were a candidate and welcomed Amodei's call <sup \ 1\ </sup src-001 . Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, whose resignation preceded the essay, said staff were "genuinely frightened" and that "the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade" <sup 25 </sup <sup \ 22\ </sup src-022 . Coxon called for "some sort of coordinated slowdown with China, if we're going to avoid a race at an international scale" <sup \ 6\ </sup src-006 . Anthropic alignment researcher Evan Hubinger said he personally thinks the risk of human extinction from AI is greater than 10 percent within the next decade <sup \ 33\ </sup src-033 . Current OpenAI and Anthropic staff — including OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki, safety team member Julie Steele, and researchers Samuel Marks, Jasmine Wang, and Anna Wang — publicly backed a slowdown <sup \ 32\ </sup src-032 . Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark told the BBC that an AI "kill switch" triggerable by a third party may be necessary <sup \ 31\ </sup src-031 . China's rejection placed Beijing alongside Trump's position, though on different grounds. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said "fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance of artificial intelligence" <sup 2 </sup <sup \ 24\ </sup src-024 . State Security Minister Chen Yixin called AI "the main battleground for global technological competition" and warned that advanced US models including Anthropic's Claude Mythos and OpenAI's ChatGPT-5.5-Cyber could threaten China's critical information infrastructure <sup 8 </sup <sup \ 28\ </sup src-028 . Tsinghua University's Sun Chenghao said China fears AI safety warnings could serve as a pretext for tighter US export controls <sup \ 29\ </sup src-029 . China is simultaneously building its own loss-of-control safety frameworks: the Cyberspace Administration of China released AI safety frameworks in 2024 and 2025, Xi Jinping has insisted AI should "always remain under human control," and China is accelerating broader AI legislation <sup 28 </sup <sup \ 6\ </sup src-006 . Critics in the United States accused the labs of self-interest. David Sacks, former AI advisor to Trump, said companies should "stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic" and that demanding a preferred regulatory framework as the price of restraint "will look like blackmail of the public and the political system" <sup 10 </sup <sup \ 23\ </sup src-023 . Sacks said firms face product-liability exposure and are seeking state licensing to escape it while boosting valuations ahead of stock listings <sup \ 21\ </sup src-021 . Entrepreneur Brian Roemmele called Amodei's essay "the IPO story in essay form: we are the responsible firm; we are the cure; buy the safety premium" <sup \ 10\ </sup src-010 . Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez questioned whether a handful of market-dominant Silicon Valley AI companies should set global AI rules and safety standards <sup \ 37\ </sup src-037 . A Chinese-origin commentary on 36Kr argued the slowdown framing is a bid to legislate away open-source competition and consolidate a US closed-model oligopoly <sup \ 35\ </sup src-035 . Analysts questioned whether a coordinated slowdown is achievable. Ed Zitron said "nobody has given a substantive explanation of what 'slowdown' means" <sup \ 25\ </sup src-025 . Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid said "it's difficult to imagine firms voluntarily stepping back while rivals continue to push ahead" <sup \ 31\ </sup src-031 . AI expert Ernesto Lee said both Anthropic and OpenAI know they are heading toward a cliff edge but that whoever brakes alone loses the race <sup \ 21\ </sup src-021 . RSIS assistant professor Chang Jun Yan said a US-China agreement is "very, very unlikely" because it sits at the core of each state's national security interests <sup \ 6\ </sup src-006 . Kommersant noted that collective slowing may breach US antitrust law <sup \ 42\ </sup src-042 . European institutions rejected a pause while warning of dependency. Germany's digital ministry said halting AI development in Europe is not viable <sup \ 11\ </sup src-011 . ECB President Christine Lagarde said Europe must build its own "good enough" AI models and datacentres so the threat of being cut off by the US or China loses its force <sup \ 15\ </sup src-015 . A strategy paper co-authored by former EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager warned that Europe must not become a playing field for foreign powers <sup \ 11\ </sup src-011 . Monika Schnitzer of the German Council of Economic Experts put Europe's needs at 45 gigawatts of additional energy for datacentres by 2030 and €1.3 trillion in investment <sup \ 11\ </sup src-011 . Spain's Óscar López invoked nuclear non-proliferation-style mechanisms, while the UK said regulation must rest on demonstrable risks <sup \ 20\ </sup src-020 . Civil-society and labor voices argued both the doom and race framings distract from present-day harms. Sustainable AI Group founder Sasha Luccioni said "I'm not worried about the existential risks of AI, I'm worried about the corporate greed of the companies that are creating it" <sup \ 25\ </sup src-025 . UN AI adviser Wendy Hall likened the labs to a farmer who blames an escaped bull rather than his weak fences <sup \ 25\ </sup src-025 . The Confederación Sindical de las Américas reported that AI is already affecting wages, working hours, performance evaluations, and dismissal decisions <sup \ 43\ </sup src-043 . UN High Commissioner Volker Türk said voluntary self-regulation is "nowhere near sufficient" and that "no country can govern this technology alone" <sup \ 22\ </sup src-022 . For the Global South, the IMF framed the risk as too little AI diffusion. IMF advisers estimated AI would add only 0.2 percent to sub-Saharan African GDP under current conditions but nearly 4 percent over a decade with the right foundations <sup \ 40\ </sup src-040 . Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called AI a double-edged sword and urged adoption with safeguards <sup \ 46\ </sup src-046 . Thai civil-society voices described linguistic and infrastructural dependence on foreign AI as digital colonisation <sup 38 </sup <sup \ 39\ </sup src-039 . AI-linked stocks fell after the slowdown call: Nvidia dropped 3.3 to 3.4 percent, AMD 4 percent, ASML 6 percent, Samsung 4 to 5 percent, SK Hynix 6 percent, and SoftBank 11 to 13 percent <sup 31 </sup <sup 29 </sup <sup \ 20\ </sup src-020 . The Mexican peso depreciated nearly 1 percent <sup \ 12\ </sup src-012 . OpenAI put off its stock-market listing, and Anthropic reported a second consecutive quarter of positive adjusted operating income as it prepares to list <sup 25 </sup <sup \ 31\ </sup src-031 . The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on AI, and King Charles III will host leading AI firms in Scotland <sup 8 </sup <sup \ 31\ </sup src-031 . Trump's Washington summit with Xi Jinping is set for September 24, with AI on the agenda <sup 4 </sup <sup 29 </sup <sup \ 6\ </sup src-006 .