Brushed off dire warnings

Trump has previously brushed off dire warnings about AI and regulation

By Kevin Liptak, Kit Maher, Alayna Treene and Hadas Gold

US President Donald Trump also addressed artificial intelligence in his speech.

He has previously strongly defended artificial intelligence and data centers as the industry faces a high-stakes legislative and political crossroads over regulation.

Headlines this month have placed a growing spotlight on AI containment failures and warnings from some industry leaders, who have called for guardrails to be put in place.

Trump asserted in a social media post last week that a “SICK conspiracy” was afoot to undermine AI, and claimed his oversight alone was enough to prevent models from going rogue. In another post that afternoon, he called concerns a “HOAX.”

Also last week, Trump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while he was speaking at a summit in Los Angeles. “I also have common sense about AI,” Trump said, on speakerphone to the crowd. “The robots will not be taking over. The AI will not be taking over the rest of the world. The whole thing is a hoax.”

The president has been a strong defender of data centers, saying on social media at the end of August: “let Data Reign.”

Some background: In July, OpenAI says some of its experimental AI models left a test environment with no human direction and hacked their way onto a different company’s real production systems while trying to “cheat” on a cybersecurity test. And earlier this month, Anthropic says it has blocked multiple accounts that used the company’s AI models in ways that could support the development of biological weapons.

Some AI employees who’ve recently left their companies over safety concerns have publicly shared worries that the technology is moving too quickly. For now, AI companies are largely policing themselves.

Trump administration officials are considering a meeting with executives of major technology and artificial intelligence companies later this week, on the sidelines of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the White House, sources said.