Trump rejects slowing AI advancement citing US-China competition

President Donald Trump has turned down calls to slow the rapid development of artificial intelligence, pointing to the United States’ race with China.

Speaking in Ireland on Sunday before departing, Trump said even though there are “negative forces” raising AI risks, his main concern is keeping America ahead of China.

“We’re leading China in AI,” he told reporters. “We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins.”

Trump’s comment was in response to the growing clamour and warnings by tech experts and prominent leaders, including Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Sam Altman (OpenAI), and Elon Musk (Tesla & SpaceX).

In an article, Amodei expressed concern about AI advancing drastically and proposed a three-step plan to “pace the frontier” — building AI at a balanced rate that guarantees safety while achieving its benefits.

The plan comprises ‘Embedded Evaluators’, where AI firms give access to third-party evaluators (like METR) to ensure adherence to safety practices, report incidents, and assess the alignment of completed AI models, training pipelines, and processes.

‘Democratic Coordination’, where AI companies in countries liaise to establish common safety standards and limit unchecked AI progress; and ‘Global Coordination’, in which the U.S. and other governments collaborate on compliance verification.

Altman and Musk publicly threw their weight behind the blueprint, eliciting commendations and further discussions on the dangers an uncontrolled AI poses to humanity.

Senator Bernie Sanders has advised President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to negotiate a treaty on AI regulation during their forthcoming meeting.

“We need a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on artificial superintelligence…before it is too late,” the American politician wrote on X.