Trump Rejects AI Extinction Fears, Says Beating China Is A Bigger Concern

Key Facts

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac while departing Dallas after the GOP convention, Trump was asked whether he had any concerns about AI leading to human extinction.

Trump said he isn’t worried about that but does have concerns “ that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position.”

The president claimed that the U.S. was “leading China” by a pretty good margin, suggesting that American AI was ahead by “a year…which is…considered a lot.”

Trump then mentioned the Chinese President’s upcoming visit to Washington later this year and said he expects the meeting to be “great,” but made no mention of AI talks.

Some researchers and safety advocates have suggested that the U.S. and China should coordinate to slow the pace of AI development until better safety guardrails are established.

What Are AI Researchers Warning About?

Earlier this week, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon made a series of posts on X after quitting the company over safety concerns. Coxon, who worked on pretraining OpenAI and Anthropic, accused both leading AI companies of not acting responsibly by “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” Coxon noted that people building these AI systems “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt.” Coxon’s post was reshared by Evan Hubinger, the Alignment Science Lead at Anthropic, who said his colleagues do “earnestly believe AI could kill all humans,” and that he personally thinks there is more than a 10% chance of it happening within the next decade.

How Have Other Political Leaders Reacted?

Coxon and Hubinger’s posts triggered a firestorm of reactions from lawmakers and leaders from both parties. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has repeatedly called for more regulation of AI, tweeted that he will “introduce legislation to ban superintelligence and pause AI development,” and said, “the very people building this technology admit that it could threaten the future of humanity.” Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on X: “that there is even a possibility that these technologies would elude human control is alarming,” and added, “technology should enhance the human experience; it should never supplant it!” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also pointed ot Coxon’s post and tweeted, “ the problem he articulates—AI companies in a blind race to build a death machine first—can easily be solved. Through a regulatory system that allows the research to continue, but in a way that doesn’t destroy us.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, expressed concern about Coxon’s thread during his appearance on “The View” and said he was working on legislation to address “catastrophic risks” from AI with his Senate colleagues. However, Cruz partly echoed Trump’s sentiment, saying: “China’s going full speed ahead and whatever we do here, China’s not gonna stop…if there are gonna be killer robots, I’d rather they be American killer robots than Chinese killer robots.”

further reading

Anthropic Researcher Warns There’s ‘>10% Chance’ AI Could ‘Kill All Humans’ By Next Decade (Forbes)

Ted Cruz Says He Prefers ‘American Killer Robots’ Over Chinese After AI Extinction Warning (Forbes)