US President Donald Trump has downplayed the risks of AI, suggesting those who are warning about it are conjuring up scenarios that he does not see.
In a Sunday appearance at his Doonbeg, Ireland golf course, Trump told reporters the U.S. does not want to be outpaced by China in the realm of artificial intelligence.
“We lead China in AI,” Trump said, calling the US the most sophisticated country in the world when it comes to the technology. He said that he did not want to lose that edge as he thinks that “whoever wins AI wins.”
Trump was answering the query if the AI business ought to decelerate the manufacturing of AI or be regulated. Some safeguards could be introduced, he said, but that “very negative forces” are exaggerating these risks and bringing up outcomes that would not occur.
His remarks coincided with a growing furor over AI safety, with two former Anthropic researchers warning of the potential future threat of rapidly evolving AI to human survival.
The warnings have also led to calls by some of the industry’s top brass for a more gradual pace. On Saturday, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, suggested a three-step strategy to provide businesses with additional time to evaluate and control risks arising from the capabilities of ever more powerful AI systems. The idea was supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI chief Elon Musk.
One of the biggest challenges was competition with the U.S. and China, Amodei said. He said that, given the military and economic pressures to accelerate progress, “any attempt to impose limits on the development of AI would require countries to have a “confidence that their competitors were doing so.
Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon also has made the same plea for international coordination, saying that “the US and China could otherwise go on a race that would make the risks of advanced AI higher.
Trump’s administration has been broadly positive on the development of AI, and technology heads are also significant political contributors in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections in the United States in November. Elon Musk’s America PAC, for instance, has already poured millions into candidates of the GOP.
Concerns about risks from Anthropic’s AI models have also been raised by the Pentagon, deepening the debate on the pace of AI development and the need for regulation.
