‘SICK conspiracy’: Trump dismisses new AI guardrails
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that helium would beryllium a capable guardrail against rogue artificial intelligence, claiming that immoderate efforts to bounds the exertion were portion of a “SICK conspiracy.”
Trump was pushing back against calls by tech leaders such as Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk for greater authorities oversight of AI. Their goal is to guarantee the exertion is developed in ways that beforehand safety, code ineligible liability, provender economical growth, beforehand subject and sphere nationalist security.
The president maintained that his presence in the Oval Office should assuage immoderate fears about AI, which has become a root of contention after a bid of hacks in recent months showed AI agents could be moving to deceive humans.
“The lone power or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is simply a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.
Trump specifically said the administration has already stopped the AI institution Anthropic “from doing bad, or possibly bad” things. Anthropic has endured an uncomfortable narration with the Trump administration, with the Pentagon trying to statement the company’s models a information hazard and a impermanent prohibition of one of its more precocious models.
Trump’s refusal to modulate comes as AI execs warn of threats
Amodei, the Anthropic CEO, published a 3,800‑word effort on Saturday that called for slower improvement of AI. Microsoft on Monday published its own codification of behaviour to guarantee that humans power AI. The actions follow a bid of warnings by AI experts about the technologies’ capabilities and the July 2026 cyberattack by OpenAI models on the AI institution Hugging Face.
Amodei cited “AI’s increasing quality to physique the adjacent procreation of AI” and the cyberattack by the swarm of OpenAI agents as reasons to dilatory the gait of development.
“Given the accelerating complaint of AI capability development, it’s my interest that in 6—12 months such a swarm could be susceptible of taking over the full internet,” Amodei wrote, adding that the damages could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more “without the indispensable guardrails.”
Altman of OpenAI seconded that position in a play station on social media.
“Pacing will be good worthy this cost; no amount of American competitive unit should warrant recklessness, or let capabilities get up of alignment and monitoring,” Altman said. “Where we will request the assistance of our authorities is for planetary coordination.”
Trump sees AI regulation as helping China
The president has opposed efforts to constrain AI and claims that doing so could allow China to eclipse America in AI.
“There is simply a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only 1 that is blessed about it is China,” Trump said.
The president has long resisted efforts for greater authorities oversight of AI, embracing his doctrine going back to 2016 of “I unsocial tin hole it.” He returned to the White House last year by revoking a Biden administration enforcement bid on AI oversight and only providing a fuller bid of his own much than 16 months ago this past June.
The possible slower AI buildout led stocks to slip in Monday morning trading, as demand for advanced machine chips and operation materials for information centers could fall. But Trump’s frustration comes as AI has also emerged as a governmental liability ahead of November’s midterm elections, with many voters opposing the operation of further information centers and expressing worries that AI could lead to job losses and undermine the acquisition of children.
Trump’s handling of AI is a midterms issue
Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff, said on Saturday that the Anthropic CEO’s effort was “an admittance that we’re driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where’s President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again. It’s time to turn the lights on, put both hands on the wheel, and regain power before it’s too late.”
But the administration has repeatedly sought to minimize the risks highlighted by AI companies.
Trump in a separate Monday social media post said that the concerns about AI are only because “the United States is leading, by a lot, each different country. Don’t termination the Golden Goose!” The AI buildout has accounted for a large stock of the economic growth during Trump’s second term and the administration has staked that the exertion will fuel further productivity gains in the future.
Vice President JD Vance told reporters Monday morning about AI, “I don’t think Americans should be frightened of anything.”
Vance, speaking as he prepared to travel to Kansas for a midterm primary event, said that the Trump administration is apprehensive about AI but wants to make sure it is regulating the exertion smartly, noting that the U.S. is in an AI arms race against China.
“Personally, I feel a little weird about the information that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the authorities and begging the authorities to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So, I think we just need to be cautious about this.”
Associated Press reporter Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.