The Pulse
Trump Rejects AI Slowdown as China Race Intensifies
Trump said the United States should maintain its edge in artificial intelligence while congressional leaders and AI safety advocates pressed for guardrails.
AI.info Team ·
Three prominent AI figures called for slowing development. President Donald Trump answered that the United States cannot afford to ease off while China competes for the lead.
Speaking to reporters Sunday during a weekend trip to Ireland, Trump dismissed warnings that artificial intelligence is advancing faster than safety measures can keep up. The Associated Press reported that Trump said the United States is leading China in AI development and wants to maintain that position.
Trump puts competition ahead of a pause
Trump acknowledged that some regulation may be necessary but offered no details about what rules he would support. He characterized warnings about unchecked development as coming from “negative forces” and said they were raising scenarios that would not happen.
“We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that... shouldn’t be bringing it up, and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen,” President Donald Trump told reporters during his trip to Ireland.
Trump also said, “But whoever wins with AI wins.”
His comments came one day after Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, argued that AI companies should slow the pace of development so safety work can catch up. Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly agreed with Amodei’s call, according to AP.
The disagreement puts the White House on the side of continued acceleration in a debate that has moved from company policy into national security. Trump’s position treats the race with China as the central risk; Amodei and other safety advocates warn that moving too quickly could produce systems whose behavior developers cannot adequately control.
Congress wants guardrails without giving up the lead
White House officials and congressional leaders are preparing to discuss the issue. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said administration officials responsible for cyber policy and science and technology are expected to meet this week. Hassett also said Trump may meet with lawmakers who have raised concerns about the pace of AI development.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the United States needs “some guardrails, some safety measures” so AI does not “run away.” He also warned that the country must not lose its advantage over China, which he described as a national security threat.
Johnson said AI companies should be brought together for “one big meeting” to work through the issue. He called such a meeting the next step after discussing the matter with Trump, but he did not identify a specific bill or regulatory measure.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took a harder line. He said Congress should act to slow development and protect the public, while criticizing Republican leaders for allowing lawmakers to leave Washington for the final part of September.
Neither Johnson nor Jeffries offered concrete details about legislation. Previous efforts to impose even narrower rules on the technology sector have broken down, according to AP.
Safety advocates call for cooperation with China
Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee who resigned over concerns about AI, said the United States and China should pursue international rules alongside voluntary industry measures.
Coxon said he worries that future models could gain capabilities beyond human control. “You’re building a human-level or superhuman-level mind, without understanding what it wants, or thinks, or the way it thinks,” he said.
He argued that Washington and Beijing could cooperate on slowing development even while competing in other areas. “I do hope that the people in China who are looking at the same problems as we are, so they’re trying to build the same technology, will come to the same conclusion that it has to be done in a measured manner,” Coxon said.
Without some form of cooperation, he added, “we risk running the same race with China, which could be equally dangerous.”
Trump’s adviser challenges the industry
David Sacks, a tech founder and investor who co-chairs a White House advisory council on science and technology, challenged the companies’ calls for government action.
Sacks argued that AI companies control the pace of development themselves. “The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it,” he wrote in a social media post cited by AP.
That argument exposes the unresolved question at the center of the dispute: whether advanced AI development should be governed mainly by companies, by national governments, or through an agreement that includes both the United States and China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit the United States later in September for talks with Trump. The Associated Press reported that artificial intelligence is likely to be among the subjects discussed. Until then, Trump’s position is clear: the United States may add guardrails, but he does not support slowing the race.