Former President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed concerns about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, calling doomsday predictions "things that won't happen" and asserting that the United States must maintain its lead in the technology. Speaking to reporters at his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, Trump stated that the apocalyptic scenarios surrounding AI are exaggerated.
"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 said. He added, "And we can put guardrails; we can do this and that. But I think you have a lot of negative voices that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen."
His remarks followed a period of heightened discussion about AI safety. Researchers from Anthropic, Joe Benton and Jacob Coxon, had recently resigned in protest, issuing warnings about the direction of AI development. In response, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI advancement, a sentiment echoed by leaders such as Elon Musk of xAI and Sam Altman of OpenAI.