President Trump said the U.S. is already equipped to regulate artificial intelligence and prosecute misuse of the technology without new regulations that Democrats are proposing.
“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!” Mr. Trump posted Monday on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump’s post follows new calls for Congress, the administration and AI industry leaders to pump the brakes on the advancement of artificial intelligence. They are seeking safety measures aimed at preventing a rogue internet takeover by AI amid threats of a “swarm of bots” overtaking the internet and destroying humanity.
Mr. Trump called the claims “a SICK conspiracy” aimed at slowing down the U.S. advancement of both AI and data centers, which have also faced considerable pushback in recent months. The president said the opposition in the U.S. is benefiting China.
“We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!” Mr. Trump posted.
His post follows Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s chilling post over the weekend about the dangers of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence that warned building it too fast is “reckless” and carries significant risks.
SEE ALSO: J.D. Vance warns that Big Tech’s plea for federal regulation may be a ‘Trojan horse’
Mr. Amodei said the OpenAI/Hugging Face hacking incident in July, in which hundreds of AI agents suddenly went rogue and hacked a testing program, could be replicated within a year on a much larger scale.
Other AI leaders, including Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, posted their agreement with Mr. Amodei that an AI safety plan must be implemented.
Democrats returning to Capitol Hill Monday immediately called for lawmakers to take action to regulate AI and criticized Mr. Trump for ignoring emerging threats.
“Warning bells are ringing louder than they ever have — and the Trump administration is looking the other way,” said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat. He asked the Trump administration to provide a classified briefing on the threats posed by AI.
“I have long argued that we must keep the U.S. as the global leaders in AI innovation and security,” Mr. Schumer said. “But innovation must be coupled with serious guardrails that earn the Trust of the American public.”
Mr. Trump on Sunday appeared open to regulating AI, telling reporters accompanying him on his Ireland trip that “We can put up guardrails, we can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing up things that won’t happen.”
SEE ALSO: Schumer to Trump: What are you doing to stop unchecked AI power?
On Monday, he warned, “Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!”
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.