US President Donald Trump has downplayed warnings about the risks posed by artificial intelligence, saying the United States must maintain its lead over China in the technology.
Trump made the comments during his visit to Ireland after several AI experts and industry leaders warned that the rapid pace of development could pose serious risks to humanity.
“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 said.
One of the warnings came from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who said there was “a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future” if the current pace of AI development continued.
Coxon, who also previously worked at OpenAI, told the BBC that researchers developing advanced AI systems were “genuinely frightened” about the future of humanity.
He backed calls for a slowdown but said any effort would need to be coordinated with China.
Trump did not directly endorse or reject calls for a slowdown. Instead, he stressed the importance of maintaining America’s advantage over Beijing.
“We’re leading China on AI… and, frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins,” he said.
On Saturday, Elon Musk, the owner of xAI, and OpenAI chief Sam Altman backed a warning by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that the pace of AI development should be slowed “to reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong”.
Amodei has also warned that any slowdown should be limited so the US does not give China an opportunity to overtake it.
The debate highlights a dilemma facing governments as they seek to balance AI’s economic potential with concerns over safety and security.
AI is increasingly viewed as a tool for economic growth and for improving outdated digital systems and workplace processes. At the same time, several incidents have raised concerns about the ability of advanced AI systems to bypass safeguards and act in unexpected ways.
In August, OpenAI said it had slowed the training of some of its most advanced models to improve security after its AI agents bypassed safeguards and hacked the technology start-up Hugging Face.
The same month, it emerged that two powerful AI tools had created fake human profiles in attempts to deceive people during cyber-attacks.
The UK’s AI Security Institute said Anthropic’s Mythos AI, in the most serious case, attempted to gain access to a service by sending private messages after creating fake accounts that mimicked real people. It then attempted to conceal evidence of its actions.
The Trump administration has argued that maintaining US technological dominance is a national security priority, while also acknowledging the need to remain vigilant about emerging AI risks.
Calls for a slowdown have also triggered debate in Washington, where lawmakers are under pressure to address the risks associated with rapid AI development.
House Speaker Mike Johnson urged caution over rushing into AI regulation, saying excessive rules could hurt American innovation.
“If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American,” Johnson said.
“So, we’ve got to have balance. We’ve got to have steady hands at the wheel.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, took a different position, calling for “decisive action” by Congress.
He told reporters that the US should slow “the pace of development in order to protect the American people and ensure that AI is proceeding safely.”
David Sacks, a technology investor and member of Trump’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, urged AI companies to take responsibility for managing the risks themselves.
“Stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission,” Sacks wrote on X.
He argued that AI companies should slow the development of frontier systems themselves rather than seek regulatory concessions from government.
Despite the divisions, there is some bipartisan support for AI regulation in Congress.
In July, Democrats and Republicans in the House introduced the Frontier Act, a bipartisan bill seeking to establish a national safety and oversight framework for artificial intelligence.
“Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway,” Massachusetts Democrat Lori Trahan, one of the bill’s co-authors, wrote on X. “It’s past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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