US President Donald Trump on Sunday played down the need to check artificial intelligence development, telling reporters he was unwilling to cede America’s edge over China as the technology advances.
Speaking during a weekend trip to Ireland, Trump attributed warnings about AI moving too quickly to unidentified “negative forces.” “We can put guard rails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” he said. “But whoever wins with AI wins.”
The remarks followed a warning from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who said on Saturday the industry should slow its fast-moving development to let safety measures catch up. Elon Musk, owner of xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly agreed. Amodei added that any slowdown would have to be limited to avoid letting China pull ahead.
Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee who resigned over AI concerns, said that staff developing the systems were “genuinely frightened” for the future of humanity. “You’re building a human-level or superhuman-level mind, without understanding what it wants, or thinks, or the way it thinks,” Coxon said. He urged international rules alongside self-regulation and called for cooperation between the United States and China to address safety.
The debate has reached Washington. House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged the need for “some guard rails, some safety measures” but warned against rushing regulation. “If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American,” he said, calling for industry leaders to be summoned for one large meeting.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued for “decisive action” and slowing “the pace of development in order to protect the American people.” Neither Johnson nor Jeffries set out concrete steps.
AI has become an election-year issue as large companies build a national network of computing warehouses, with residents from both parties raising alarms over lost farmland, water use and rising electricity bills.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said he expects meetings this week involving administration officials who oversee cyber and science and technology policy. Trump could also meet members of Congress. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States later in September to meet Trump, with AI likely among the topics discussed.