Someone needs to meet the meat grinder

Trump tries to kill regulations on ‘HOAX’ AI dangers

The president is trying to shut down a growing push for AI regulation, amid calls from leaders to slow the production of artificial intelligence.

By Elleiana Green and Owen Dahlkamp

President Donald Trump tried to shut down a burgeoning push for the United States to further regulate artificial intelligence on Monday morning, saying the U.S. has already done enough to prevent artificial intelligence from catastrophic risks and that the dangers posed by the technology are a “HOAX.”

In a flurry of social media posts Monday, the president decried placing additional guardrails on AI, argued that the technology and data centers will boost the economy, claimed there’s a conspiracy against it and alleged, without evidence, that there’s no real threat posted by AI.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX, no different from RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA — UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE — IMPEACHMENT HOAX #1 — IMPEACHMENT HOAX #2 — and all of the other HOAXES and SCAMS that America was forced to endure,” he said on Truth Social.

His posts come as technology leaders called for the industry to slow down the production of AI over the weekend, sending tech stocks tumbling Monday.

Earlier Monday, Trump suggested that his presidency alone was enough to stave off further regulations. “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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He also focused on the threat China poses in the tech race, writing that “there is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”

The president has repeatedly said in public remarks over the past week that his top priority is ensuring China does not gain supremacy over a new technology that is poised to reshape civil society.

Trump also called out Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, claiming that he is “now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’” after the Trump administration had previously “stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things.’“

Over the weekend, Amodei was the first major AI leader to publicly call for a slowdown, writing in a lengthy essay, “We must slow down the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”

Shortly after, xAI CEO Elon Musk said on social media that “Dario is right.”

OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, also said he agreed with Amodei, adding that the issue has been a topic of discussion at OpenAI. And OpenAI’s top European lobbyist, in an interview with POLITICO, called on the United Kingdom to also introduce new regulations.

The Trump administration previously clashed with Anthropic publicly after the company attempted to restrict how the Pentagon could use its Claude AI model, resulting in it being designated a supply-chain risk. The AI giant sued, and a federal judge in late July said that it seemed that the administration overstepped its authority in targeting the company.

One of Anthropic’s most advanced models was also slapped with export controls in June after the administration deemed its release posed security risks. In an attempt to comply, Anthropic shut down the model entirely before the ban was partially lifted later that month.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s Monday social media post.

The president on Monday also called Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, while Huang was on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles Monday afternoon. Speaking to the crowd through the call, Trump again brushed aside calls to rein in the technology.

“The data centers are great, and they make people wealthy, and they make states wealthy, and it’s the oil for the next 20-25 years, bigger than the internet. And AI, much more so,” he said, according to a video posted by an attendee, adding that people who are calling for tighter regulations “are just playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen,” including “political people” and “China.”

“We’re not gonna let that happen. It’s a hoax,” the president said.

“You’re right, we are not gonna let that happen, sir,” Huang, whose company designs and sells the most advanced hardware used for training AI models, said in response.

Concern from lawmakers and the tech industry spiked last week after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and issued a warning that the emerging technology could “could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

His prediction increased fears about the growing capabilities of the technology, with top AI labs in recent weeks disclosing several instances in which rogue AI agents broke out of their testing environments and carried out sophisticated hacking campaigns across the internet.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Monday before Trump’s social media post that AI is “something we’re concerned by, but we want to make sure that we actually regulate smartly and we’re thoughtful about the risk here.”

He added, “I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse.”

At this point, Vance said the U.S. should be mindful of risks, but he does not think Americans should “be scared of anything.”

Democrats in Congress sharply criticized Trump’s commentary on Monday, saying he was abdicating a responsibility.

“Calling Americans worried about the existential risks posed by AI ‘treasonists’ and ‘traitors’ is further proof President Trump doesn’t understand the current moment,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said in a post, as he called for Congress to act.

In the days since Coxon’s resignation, Congress has been at odds about how to regulate AI production going forward, even as some lawmakers from both parties say that now is the time for Congress to step in.

On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” that developers, not Congress, are responsible for ensuring products are safe. The Louisiana Republican said he would support talks with tech leaders on AI.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said AI risks are “deeply concerning” in an interview on POLITICO’s “The Conversation” with Dasha Burns last week. Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said he may hold a markup this month on AI legislation, including a bill he is working on with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to address biological or nuclear threats.

And some progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have called for a complete shutdown of AI research.