Trump thinks concern about AI is a hoax.
CNN, today: Trump dismisses AI alarms as a ‘HOAX’ — worrying White House officials
President Donald Trump spent Monday angrily rejecting calls from AI industry leaders for more government regulation on their cutting-edge models, making clear in a day-long string of social media posts he considers outpacing China and preserving AI-driven economic gains a higher priority than addressing growing public concerns.
Trump asserted a “SICK conspiracy” was afoot to undermine AI and claimed his oversight alone was enough to prevent models from going rogue. He called concerns a “HOAX,” comparing the technology to the “Global Warming Scam” and the investigation of possible ties between his campaign and the Russian government. He also renewed his support for the data centers that power AI, despite their political unpopularity.
And
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, where he frequently posts AI-generated images and videos of himself.
We’re doomed.
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Robert Reich, today: The MAGA Plot(s) to Destroy Humanity, subtitled “On AI and climate, it’s the same story of mass destruction”
He recounts the current situation, discussing the recent call Daron Amodei by the CEO of Anthropic to slow things down.
For in a real sense, Amodei isn’t just trying to protect humanity from rogue AI, he is also trying to protect humanity from Donald Trump. It’s important to remember that, under the Biden administration, government policymakers tried to formulate some basic AI precautions. But removing those precautions was literally one of the first things Donald Trump did when taking office the second time. And that’s a history worth revisiting at a moment when the AI industry itself is sounding the alarm, but Trump is dismissing the risks:
You have a lot of very negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.
Well, I’m glad to know that he’s sure that bad things won’t happen. But last I heard, Trump wasn’t a technology expert. And his recent record on rosy predictions — wasn’t the Iran war supposed to be over in a few days? — hasn’t been great.
With some history, including this.
The centerpiece of the Biden agenda on AI was Executive Order 14401, issued on October 30, 2023, titled “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” The document declared that
Harnessing AI for good and realizing its myriad benefits requires mitigating its substantial risks. This endeavor demands a society-wide effort that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society.
Would we be less panicked now if there had been a serious effort to put that executive order’s recommendations into effect? It’s basically impossible to say, because precautionary policy toward AI never got a chance. Trump revoked Executive Order 14401 on Jan. 20, 2025. Yes, you read that right: He literally removed all safeguards on AI on his first day in office.
Just three days later his administration issued a new executive order, “Removing barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence,” which might be summarized as “Damn the social and existential risks, full speed ahead.”
And then a section about climate change, which now Trump claims is a hoax because it hasn’t ended the world yet.
There is a lot to be said about the reasons our current government seems so determined to rush into disaster, even when the very survival of humanity may be at stake. Climate denial, we know from decades of experience, is fueled by an unholy trinity of financial interest (fossil fuel companies determined to keep their profits flowing), ideology (conservatives hostile to any form of regulation) and psychological insecurity (real men burn stuff.) AI-risk denial presumably reflects a similar mix of factors.
