By Bo Erickson and Padraic Halpin
DOONBEG, Ireland, Sept 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday likened critics of artificial intelligence to “very negative forces” bringing up scenarios that will not happen, and said he wanted to make sure that the U.S. remains the industry leader.
“We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” Trump told reporters at his Ireland golf course, when asked if the AI industry should slow down or be more regulated.
“We could put guardrails. We can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of very negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”
Trump has resisted stirring concerns about AI.
The public debate about AI has heated up in the U.S. after two Anthropic researchers issued warnings that the rapidly progressing technology could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future.
In his second term, Trump’s administration has largely embraced AI firms. These AI leaders and other technology companies have also supported Trump’s initiatives.
AI executives have poured money into the midterm campaign ahead of the November 3 election that will determine control of Congress. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s super PAC, America PAC, has already spent millions backing Republican candidates and is expected to play a major role in voter turnout efforts this fall.
The Pentagon this year warned of risks from Anthropic’s model.
After the researcher warnings, some AI CEOs are pushing for slowing advancement of the models.
On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei outlined a three-step framework intended to pace development and create more time to manage its risks.The proposal immediately received endorsements from several other executives at major AI companies, including Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
In an interview that aired Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Amodei said the competition between U.S. and Chinese AI companies was the “toughest dilemma” in trying to establish a “speed limit” on the rate of AI development.
“We shouldn’t kid ourselves, because the incentives to pull ahead and the military advantage that you get from that are so large that the ability to check that the other side isn’t cheating has to be ironclad,” he said. “So I think that’s going to be the work of years, and honestly, I don’t know if it’s possible.”
Jacob Coxon, one of the Anthropic researchers who resigned and then issued the warnings, pushed for the U.S. to work with other countries to ensure pace.
“I feel we need international coordination, or else we risk running the same race with China, which could be equally dangerous,” Coxon said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; additional reporting from Joseph Ax; Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Andrew Heavens and David Gregorio)
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