Donald Trump rejects the idea of slowing down AI

Guardrails, yes; slowing down, no

Last week, the publication by departing top researcher Jacob Coxon—who held successive roles focused on pre-training AI models for giants OpenAI and Anthropic—hit like a thunderbolt regarding the risks that artificial intelligence development could pose to humanity by the end of the decade.

The situation was significantly amplified just days later by a statement from the co-founder of industry giant Anthropic (Claude), Dario Amodei. He went as far as to propose outright slowing down the development of the most advanced AI models to address the challenges looming on the horizon.

🔍 Investing in AI - The 10 Best Stocks in the Sector (2026)

These alarmist statements have triggered reactions at the highest levels of the U.S. government, prompting President Donald Trump to respond over the weekend from his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, where he was traveling. To put it mildly, he does not buy into the dystopian scenarios put forth by what he describes as destabilizing "negative forces."

We can put guardrails in place, do this or that, but I think there are many negative forces raising issues they shouldn't be raising and talking about things that aren't going to happen.

The AI Race: Donald Trump wants to stay ahead of China

The Trump administration rejects this approach from AI giants, who are already capable of taking steps to slow their own progress if it truly aligned with their goals. The priority is to avoid ceding ground to China, at the risk of the United States losing its current leadership in the market.

Listen, we are ahead of China in the AI sector… and, frankly, I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins the AI race takes it all.

🗞️ Biological risks, espionage, cyberattacks: Anthropic unveils "harmful" use cases of its AI

This provided an opportunity for Donald Trump's former AI advisor, David Sacks, to state that "the easiest way to not build a superintelligence is to just agree not to build it." He added that the current situation "feels more like blackmail being exercised on the public and the political system."

This view is shared by some analysts, who see this move by AI giants as a strategy designed to penalize their competition, particularly in the open-source model segment.

Meanwhile, Democrats are rising up against this perspective, which remains fixated on Chinese competition. Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego remarked that Donald Trump "is not up to the task," explaining that "once it becomes truly dangerous, AI won't care whether we are Chinese or American."

Source: Financial Times