US President Donald Trump has dismissed growing AI safety concerns, arguing that the country already has enough regulatory and criminal powers to control artificial intelligence companies when necessary.
According to Reuters, Trump made the remarks on Monday in a post on Truth Social after several technology industry leaders raised fresh warnings about the possible misuse and dangers of increasingly powerful AI systems.
“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!” Trump wrote. He described the growing concerns as a “SICK conspiracy” against artificial intelligence and data centres, claiming China stood to benefit from doubts surrounding US AI development.
AI safety concerns grow
Trump also argued that the main safeguard needed for artificial intelligence was strong political leadership.
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT,” he wrote.
His comments followed renewed warnings from inside the artificial intelligence industry. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon recently resigned and warned that some people developing advanced AI believe the technology could pose catastrophic risks before the end of the decade.
AI-related stocks also fell sharply on Monday after executives at some of the world’s largest technology companies supported calls to slow the pace of development.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei on Saturday presented a three-step framework aimed at slowing development enough to give governments and companies more time to manage emerging risks.
The proposal received support from other prominent technology executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who runs xAI.
US Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat involved in technology legislation, also spoke with Amodei and Altman over the weekend about concerns surrounding AI safety, his spokesperson told Reuters.
Trump targets Anthropic chief
Trump singled out Amodei while arguing that his administration had already shown it could intervene when necessary.
“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!),” Trump said.
The president has generally resisted calls for tougher restrictions on artificial intelligence and has embraced the rapid expansion of the industry during his second term.
The debate also comes ahead of Trump’s scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington next week.
US and Chinese officials are also expected to hold separate discussions on artificial intelligence risks, highlighting the growing role of AI safety and technological competition in relations between the two countries.
