Donald Trump said on social media that his “high IQ” makes him uniquely qualified to oversee artificial intelligence safety, while issuing a sharp warning about what he called a “sick conspiracy” involving China.
“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 wrote Monday morning.
Trump also singled out Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI company Anthropic, portraying him as an alarmist who presents himself as a “perfect little angel.”
“The Trump Administration has stopped AI ‘people’ from doing bad, or potentially bad, ‘things,’ like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel’ — and we will continue to do so!” Trump wrote.
He further claimed that “there is a sick conspiracy going on against AI data centers,” adding that China was the only party benefiting from the opposition.
The Trump administration has argued that China would gain an advantage if the United States slowed its artificial intelligence rollout. Republican lawmakers have also suggested that Chinese officials are helping fuel protests against AI data centers.
“Whoever wins AI, wins,” Trump wrote. “We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, beware!”
“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 wrote Monday morning.
Trump named Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, casting him as an AI alarmist who portrays himself as a “perfect little angel.” Trump wrote that his administration had stopped AI figures from doing “bad, or potentially bad” things and would continue to do so.
Trump has repeatedly argued that slowing US artificial intelligence development would benefit China, which is competing to lead the strategically important technology.
In a follow-up post, Trump said the “AI/Data Center outburst” was happening because the United States was leading the world in AI development “by a lot.” “Don’t kill the Golden Goose,” he added.
The administration has expressed skepticism toward claims by some AI executives who have called for a pause or slowdown in US development because of safety concerns.
‘I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them?’ Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Monday.
‘It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse!’
Former Trump AI and crypto czar David Sacks has voiced concern that AI firms calling for the government to crack down on their industries could be engaging in ‘regulatory capture,’ where the large corporations calling for regulators to set standards could benefit from their competition having to abide by new rules.
Should the government place new regulations on AI firms, Sacks and others believe that the largest companies, like OpenAI, Anthropic, among others, would be able to afford whatever changes may come, while smaller companies may be forced to shutter if they cannot oblige any forthcoming federal AI framework.
Trump, Vance and other administration officials have expressed hesitance in throttling AI development over fears of Chinese domination in the space.
‘We know the Chinese are engaged in an AI race against the US…we want to do things smartly and stay ahead of the curve,’ Vance said on Monday.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said over the weekend that AI firms should coordinate on safety protocols in lieu of government regulations
Industry executives have expressed fears of AI running amok given multiple recent security incidents.
In one, OpenAI expressed alarm after a cluster of its AI agents were able to access the internet during an exercise where the system was intentionally kept offline.
The breach highlighted some unintended consequences of the latest AI models, known as frontier models.
Over the weekend, Amodei warned that a swarm of AI agents may be able to take over the internet in six months to a year unless his firm Anthropic and others devote more time to system safety protocols.
CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman said over the weekend that AI companies should begin coordinating on guardrails, adding that the rollout of new models ‘should be slower than it otherwise could be.’
