Trump says DOJ will rein in AI 'if we have to'
President Trump has touted development of artificial intelligence by U.S. companies as a competitive advantage over China that he wants to maintain.
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President Donald Trump said Monday that the Department of Justice and other U.S. law enforcement agencies will rein in risks associated with artificial intelligence "if we have to."
"We will be careful," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump's mention of the DOJ as a backstop came as he again downplayed potential dangers from AI, which he has repeatedly called a hoax in the past two weeks, after Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher at Anthropic, quit his job and warned that that company and OpenAI are "gambling with our lives" with the technology.
The president has touted AI development by American companies as a competitive advantage for the United States, which he wants to maintain.
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"Whoever wins AI, WINS!" Trump wrote in his post.
"We are leading now over China, and everyone else, and I'm going to keep it that way!" he wrote. "I'm not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself."
"We will be careful, and that's why we have the Department of Justice, and other Law Enforcement bodies, that will rein things in if we have to, but I will only encourage AI or, SI (SUPER INTELLIGENCE)!" Trump wrote.
The president, in a Sept. 14 Truth Social post, wrote, "We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies."
Since Coxon's warning, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, the chair of Google DeepMind, have called for a slowdown of AI development and extra federal oversight of their industry.
The White House has largely taken a light approach to AI regulation, with Trump's executive order in June laying out a loose plan for review.
That order asked companies to voluntarily work with the administration to evaluate "covered frontier models" and give the government access up to 30 days before a broad release.
