President Trump insisted Sunday that “negative forces” are hyping the dangers of artificial intelligence but said he would agree to safety measures that would ensure its rapid advancement does not harm America.
Speaking to reporters in Ireland, where he is meeting government officials and attending the Irish Open, Mr. Trump said the United States must lead in AI or risk losing the race to China.
His comments follow two new warnings about artificial intelligence, the most recent on Saturday from the Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who said the AI industry should slow down in order to allow safety protocols to be developed.
Mr. Amodei warned that AI could be capable within six to 12 months of leading a swarm of “bots” that would be “capable of taking over the entire internet” and more.
“We can put up guardrails, we can do this and that,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Ireland. “But I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing up things that won’t happen.”
Mr. Trump said he’s concerned the United States will be outpaced by China, which is rapidly advancing AI.
“We’re leading China in AI,” the president said. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”
There have been growing calls, particularly from Congressional Democrats, to take steps to regulate AI.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believes AI guardrails are needed and that he’s spoken to industry leaders who agree but have different ideas about how to implement safety measures.
“So they don’t themselves have the answer as of today, so we can’t rush in and have Congress do something that would be detrimental to national security,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’re going to balance this.”
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