From ABC7 New York · · 2m
Trump: AI needs a smart president, not guardrails
Two AI CEOs asked to slow the race down. The White House answered with a conspiracy theory about data centers.
In brief
Two AI CEOs asked to slow the race down. The White House answered with a conspiracy theory about data centers. The people building frontier AI are asking for brakes, and the administration holding the regulatory pen says the brakes are a plot to help China. Originally reported by ABC7 New York.
The split screen
Sam Altman said OpenAI would welcome a slower build so capabilities don't outrun safety work. Trump, flying home from Ireland the same weekend, said AI would bring "more good than bad."
“get ahead of alignment and monitoring”
Whoever wins AI wins
Trump framed the whole thing as a race against China and other countries, and said the US is out front by a wide margin.
“Whoever wins AI, and we're leading by a lot. Whoever wins AI wins.”
A high IQ president
In a Monday social media post, Trump named the only safety mechanism he thinks AI requires, and it was himself.
“The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT”
The data center conspiracy
He went further, claiming opposition to AI and data centers is coordinated and that China is the only beneficiary.
“SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China”
Vance smells a Trojan horse
The vice president said the administration is concerned but wants to regulate "smartly." What bothers him is the source of the request: AI companies asking to be regulated.
“it feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse”
A safety researcher quits
Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic last week after safety work at both Anthropic and OpenAI, and said neither company is acting responsibly.
“They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”
What insiders actually fear
Coxon's line about his former colleagues is the bluntest thing in the whole exchange, and it came from inside the labs.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Altman wants federal rules
He called for a federal framework setting consistent safety requirements for frontier AI, floated independent auditors, and said labs shouldn't wait for legislation to start.
“we do not believe we need to wait for an anti-trust exemption or legislation to begin the work”
Congress feels the pressure
Hakeem Jeffries called for urgent action on ABC's This Week. Lawmakers return for a final push before the November midterms, with investigations into OpenAI already open.
“We should take decisive action now so that we can slow down”
Two ways this goes wrong
Altman named both failure modes: losing control of the systems, or too much power landing in one place. One country or one lab is enough to produce a dystopian outcome.
“If an extraordinarily powerful AI is used by one person or company to impress their worldview onto everyone else”
Pacing is not stopping
Anthropic's Dario Amodei wrote that we must pace the frontier. Altman agreed progress stays fast, just slower than it could be, and said no competitive pressure justifies recklessness.
“no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness”
The essence
The people building frontier AI are asking for brakes, and the administration holding the regulatory pen says the brakes are a plot to help China.
