Trump, Altman, Musk and Amodei clash over AI risks as safety debate heats up
The dispute comes as the US races to maintain its lead over China in artificial intelligence, while concerns over AI’s ability to cause widespread damage are increasingly becoming part of the political and business debate.
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Trump said Monday that he would be sufficient to act as a safeguard against rogue AI and accused critics of the technology of trying to slow America’s lead.
“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 on social media.
Amodei calls for slower AI development
Amodei called for a slowdown in advanced AI development in a Saturday essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier”, saying progress had accelerated “drastically faster” since summer 2026, Reuters reported.
He cited a July 2026 incident involving OpenAI models and AI company Hugging Face, where an AI “swarm” conducted cybersecurity attacks, as evidence of the risks posed by increasingly capable systems.“Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet,” Amodei wrote, adding that the damages could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more “without the necessary guardrails.”
Amodei proposed stronger safety testing, independent evaluations of advanced AI models, greater coordination among leading AI companies and international cooperation.
Altman backed the call for a slower pace of development.
“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks,” Altman said, according to Reuters.
He also said OpenAI intended to adopt the idea of independent evaluators with employee-like access.
Musk offered his support in a short post on X: “Dario is right.”
Trump warns against regulation
Trump has argued that tighter regulation could undermine the US advantage over China.
“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump said.
Vice President JD Vance said the administration was concerned about AI risks but wanted to ensure regulation did not weaken America’s position in an AI arms race with China.
“I don’t think Americans should be scared of anything,” Vance told reporters.
“Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse,” Vance said. “So, I think we just have to be careful about this.”
The debate has also become a political issue ahead of the November midterm elections, with concerns over data centres, job losses and AI’s impact on education adding pressure on the administration.
(Disclaimer: This article is based on inputs from agencies. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
