# Trump says DOJ will police AI if needed

> President Trump downplays AI risks while positioning law enforcement as a backstop, as AI leaders call for industry slowdown.
- Title: Trump says DOJ will police AI if needed · CNBC | Shortify
- Summary: President Trump downplays AI risks while positioning law enforcement as a backstop, as AI leaders call for industry slowdown. Trump said the Department of…
- Keywords: donald trump, artificial intelligence, department of justice, ai regulation, anthropic, openai, jacob coxon, dario amodei, sam altman, business, finance, Trump
- Source: CNBC — https://cnbc.com/2026/09/21/trump-ai-doj.html
- Author: Dan Mangan
- Published: 2026-09-21T16:07:12+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: donald trump, artificial intelligence, department of justice, ai regulation, anthropic, openai, jacob coxon, dario amodei, sam altman, business, finance
## Trump: DOJ will rein in AI risks
President Donald Trump said the Department of Justice and other U.S. law enforcement agencies will rein in risks associated with artificial intelligence if we have to.

> We will be careful
## Trump downplays AI dangers again
Trump's statement came as he again downplayed potential dangers from AI, which he has repeatedly called a hoax in the past two weeks.
## Anthropic researcher warns of risks
Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher at Anthropic, quit his job in September warning that Anthropic and OpenAI are gambling with our lives with the technology.

> gambling with our lives
## Trump prioritizes US AI dominance
Trump has touted AI development by American companies as a competitive advantage, writing that whoever wins AI wins and the US is leading over China and everyone else.

> Whoever wins AI, WINS!
## Trump opposes stifling AI growth
Trump wrote he will not stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution or the Internet itself, and will only encourage AI or super intelligence.

> I'm not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself.
## AI leaders call for industry slowdown
Since Coxon's warning, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, chair of Google DeepMind, have called for a slowdown in AI development and extra federal oversight.
## Key takeaway

Trump said the Department of Justice will rein in AI risks if necessary, but he wants to encourage development to keep the US ahead of China.