Trump calls AI fears a hoax

As AI company leaders warn of catastrophic risks, Trump now dismisses AI doomsday concerns as a hoax. One adviser is driving this shift.

Meet David Sacks

A venture capitalist from the PayPal Mafia, Sacks co-hosts the All-In podcast and advised Elon Musk on Twitter. He's Trump's AI and crypto czar.

“David Sacks. It's all coming from him.”

Sacks opposes AI regulation

His preferred approach is to "let them cook." He argues government intervention would squelch innovation and hurt America's competitive edge.

“It's this very libertarian approach to America winning in AI.”

Even AI CEOs want slowdowns

Leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, and even Elon Musk have called for slowing advanced AI development due to safety dangers.

Sacks dismisses safety warnings

He's called concerns from former Anthropic employees "doomer histrionics." If companies think their products are dangerous, that's on them, he says.

“If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible.”

He's critical of leading AI labs

Though seen as pro-AI, Sacks has been quite critical of the two biggest US AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic themselves.

The open weight AI vision

Sacks backs "open weight" AI where models are publicly available, not controlled by a few companies. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Meta's Zuckerberg agree.

“Keeping innovation decentralized and accessible is the key to avoiding an unsafe and dystopian future.”

Who controls superintelligence

Zuckerberg asks: will advanced AI be centralized in a few institutions, or will it be a tool that empowers everyone?

“The defining questions of our age are who will have access to superintelligence and what will we direct it towards.”

Big money at stake

Nvidia wants more chip customers. Meta wants to lead open models. Venture capitalists like Sacks fund startups that benefit from cheaper AI alternatives.

Open AI safety concerns

Critics warn bad actors like terrorists or rogue nations could strip safety features from open models and develop biological weapons.

“They can strip out safety features and guardrails, they can do some fine tuning to basically make the models even more dangerous.”

The regulation debate

Open AI advocates say heavy regulation would entrench OpenAI and Anthropic's dominance. They'd be better able to comply given their size.

Strange political bedfellows

Left and right critics both suspect OpenAI and Anthropic want regulations to consolidate market power. Sacks agrees with former FTC chair Lina Khan on liability.

“These CEOs are going to be subject to massive civil and criminal liability if they put out products that are unsafe.”

Anthropic funds safety advocates

Sacks points out Anthropic gave $40 million to advocacy groups. He says the company is running a regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.

Selling chips to China

Despite AI race rhetoric, Trump blessed sales of Nvidia chips abroad, even to China. Sacks championed this over national security hawks' objections.

Chinese open models dominate

Chinese companies like DeepSeek produce leading open weight models that US startups use. OpenAI and Anthropic want government scrutiny, but Trump hasn't acted.

Sacks still has Trump's ear

At a live podcast event, Trump called in to say robots won't take over the world. Then he praised Sacks: "David has done an amazing job."

“The robots are not going to be taking over the world. That's not going to happen.”