Trump has dismissed AI safety warnings from Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk as a hoax. Confidence in American leadership, or ignoring a real risk?
He said the only guardrail AI needs is a strong and smart president. Trump also said his administration has stopped Anthropic from doing bad or potentially bad things, calling Amodei a perfect little angel.
What happened
After Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for slower AI development, joined by warnings from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk, President Trump rejected calls for new AI guardrails, writing that fears of AI destroying humanity are a hoax and that the only guardrail needed is a strong and smart president. He specifically singled out Amodei and said his administration has already stopped Anthropic from doing bad things, referencing past friction including a Pentagon attempt to label the company a supply-chain risk.
Why people disagree
Trump and his allies argue that excessive caution risks ceding AI leadership to China, and that industry warnings serve the companies' own interests in shaping regulation favorably. Critics, including some drawing comparisons to Trump's past dismissal of climate change as a hoax, argue that AI executives themselves raising alarms is precisely the kind of signal that shouldn't be dismissed outright.
What's still unclear
Whether this rhetoric translates into any actual policy shift, and whether the administration's friction with Anthropic specifically reflects a genuine safety disagreement or something more personal or political.
Sources
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