Trump Dismisses AI Danger Warnings, Points to Competition with China

US President Donald Trump has played down concerns about the dangers of artificial intelligence, despite a string of recent warnings from industry experts. Speaking during a visit to Ireland, he said certain negative forces were raising issues that would not actually occur, suggesting some parties had ulterior motives for spreading such warnings.

The comments follow a warning from a former Anthropic researcher, who suggested humanity faced a serious risk of extinction in the near future if artificial intelligence development continued at its current speed. On Saturday, several leading figures in the AI industry echoed similar concerns and called for a slowdown in development.

Trump did not directly respond to calls for a pause, instead emphasising that the United States currently leads China in AI development and stressing his intention to maintain that lead, arguing that whichever nation dominates AI would gain overall advantage.

His remarks came the same day that Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who recently left Anthropic, told the BBC that workers involved in building these systems were deeply worried about the future of humanity. Coxon, who has also worked at OpenAI, said he supported the idea of slowing development but stressed that any pause would need international coordination, particularly with China.

On Saturday, tech figures including Elon Musk of xAI and Sam Altman of OpenAI voiced support for a similar warning issued by Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, who argued that slowing the pace of AI advancement was necessary to lower the chances of serious mistakes occurring.