As Push to Regulate AI Grows, Trump Downplays the Risks

Standing near the 18th hole at the Irish Open, President Trump made clear he has no interest in tapping the brakes on artificial intelligence, the Washington Post reports. "Whoever wins AI wins," he said, arguing the US must keep pressing ahead to stay ahead of China and predicting the technology will bring "more good than bad—by a lot." His stance puts him at odds with a growing chorus of industry and political voices urging a slowdown, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and xAI's Elon Musk, who have all backed curbing the speed at which cutting-edge systems advance. But Trump on Sunday insisted, "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."

Democrats are leaning into the split as a campaign issue, accusing the White House of ignoring mounting risks and calling for federal regulations. Some Republicans in tight races are also edging toward tougher oversight, even as party leaders echo the administration's view that companies should police themselves. Tech chiefs, meanwhile, are pushing for space to coordinate on safety—even floating antitrust waivers—and for possible US-China standards on AI, an idea that so far has yielded no concrete deal. On Sunday, Trump did acknowledge the need for some "guardrails," and insisted he's "not downplaying" the risks, the AP reports. Meanwhile, a tech investor who is one of Trump's advisers on AI recently insisted so-called AI "doomers" could be paid plants by China aimed at slowing down the US on AI, CNN reports.