Trump Scoffs at AI Regulation Amid Doomsday Fears: ‘Won’t Happen’

Those fears about artificial intelligence going rogue and annihilating mankind? President Donald Trump isn’t worried about it.

The president shrugged off calls from top AI executives to regulate the industry while speaking to reporters on Sunday in Ireland, saying he is more concerned with beating China when it comes to developing the technology than worrying about potential doomsday scenarios he said “won’t happen.”

“President Trump, we’ve seen a lot of concerning reports about AI. Should the AI industry slow down or be more regulated?” a reporter asked.

“Well I’ll say this, we’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI, wins,” Trump said. “We can put guardrails [in], 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.”

Trump’s reaction comes a day after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote “we must slow down the pace” of AI development to make sure it doesn’t go off the rails — a claim which was quickly endorsed by Tesla/SpaceX boss Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“I believe that AI could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years, greatly accelerate economic growth rates, create a world of abundance and empowerment, and usher in a renaissance of democracy and freedom,” Amodei wrote in a lengthy post.

But he also warned AI could progress too fast, leading to a “misalignment” with humans that risks “catastrophic damage.”

“Like many technologies before it, AI brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious… They include the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption. A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute,” Amodei wrote.

His warning — and the support he received from both Musk and Altman, two rivals who rarely agree on anything in public — was immediately slapped on headlines worldwide.

Musk has warned for years AI, if not harnessed properly, could wipe out humans. He testified in his lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this year he was worried about a “Terminator outcome” where the technology could go rogue and “kill us all.” He has said at other times he pegs the likelihood AI kills off all humans at between 10-20%.

Amodei’s warning came as regulating AI has a hot topic over the past few days, following a former Anthropic researcher warning AI could “kill us all by the end of the decade.”

One day later, a former OpenAI researcher told Joe Rogan AI was “basically on a track” to take control away from humans.

Watch above via Fox News.

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