(Sept 14): US President Donald Trump attacked Anthropic PBC chief executive officer Dario Amodei for urging a slowdown in artificial intelligence (AI) development, intensifying his opposition to new guardrails for the technology.

In a Monday social media post, Trump blamed a “SICK conspiracy” for voter backlash on AI data centres and increased concern about frontier models, adding that “the only one that is happy about it is China”.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted. “We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!”

Trump’s comments went a step further from remarks he made over the weekend, when he acknowledged the need for some regulation. The president, however, has consistently dismissed warnings about AI safety risks and has emphasised the importance of developing the technology to stay ahead of China. 

The president spoke days after Amodei said the industry should tap the brakes on developing the most advanced models in order for companies to better understand potential dangers. Other AI industry leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk, concurred with Amodei’s calls for a slowdown. 

That puts an industry that Trump has relied on as an engine of economic growth directly at odds with the Republican president. He has made speeding nationwide adoption of AI the centrepiece of his policy agenda. His administration has laid out a largely hands-off approach to AI regulation, codified in an order he signed in early June. 

Trump and his team have repeatedly sparred with Anthropic and Amodei over the past few months, with the Defense Department deeming the company a supply-chain risk after it demanded restrictions on military use of its tools. 

Despite Trump’s complaints, warnings about existential threats posed by AI have continued unabated from industry figures. 

Microsoft Inc’s AI researchers released a new set of guiding tenets that place limits on the development of cutting-edge models. In a 15,000-word manifesto, the team said models shouldn’t have legal rights or personhood, and shouldn’t be engineered to escape human control or deceive users. The system should not complete a task if it requires violating the AI’s guiding principles, according to the manifesto.

The debate over AI safety is also looming over Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping planned for Sept 24. The Chinese government criticised calls from US tech executives to limit development and impose tighter curbs on Chinese model makers. 

“Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance and serve the interests of no one,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Monday.

Read also:
China rejects AI ‘fearmongering’ after Anthropic CEO urges slowdown
Amodei, Altman, Musk call for slowing AI model development

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