Trump Calls AI Safety Fears a “Hoax” as He Pushes Back on Calls for Stronger Safeguards

U.S. President Donald Trump has said fears over artificial intelligence safety are a “hoax”, criticizing calls for stronger protections for the fast-developing technology.

The remarks came after Jack Clark, a co-founder of the artificial intelligence giant Anthropic, said a “kill switch” for dangerous artificial intelligence that could be controlled by a third party might need to be mandatory for the industry.

Clark’s comments followed warnings about the risks the technology poses to humanity, raised in recent days by several executives and staff at leading artificial intelligence firms.

In a series of social media posts on Monday, the U.S. president compared the warnings about artificial intelligence to the “Global Warming Hoax”, which he said was being “perpetrated by Radical Left Democrats”.

Trump also called himself the “Hoax Spotter”, comparing concerns about the technology’s safety to what he called “RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX”.

In another post he wrote: “A SICK conspiracy is developing against AI and Data Centers, and the only one happy about this is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”

And earlier on Monday, Trump posted on social media that the only “safeguards” needed for artificial intelligence were a “strong and smart” president.

Also on Monday, Chinese state media said experts had warned that “Washington’s growing anxiety over China’s rapid development of artificial intelligence appears to be increasingly distorting its policy priorities”.

“They know that China has become a strong competitor in artificial intelligence and worry that if the U.S. slows down development or tightens regulations, China could catch up even faster,” Xin Qiang, a professor of American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.

Clark, who is one of Anthropic’s seven founders, said earlier on Monday that a way to fully shut down artificial intelligence software if it became too dangerous was something society “may eventually want to approve rules for”.

He added that “most labs have different ways of being able to unplug”, including Anthropic, but said lawmakers may need to force them to have one.

Clark’s comments add to the growing number of tech industry figures and political leaders calling for better safeguards.

On Monday, Microsoft AI became the latest major company to discuss limiting the models it is developing, after publishing a draft document on what it called “humanistic AI”.

The firm’s CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, told the business news channel CNBC he had worked on the new guidelines for months and had decided to publish it now because of the current debate around the technology.

In a sign of how central concerns about the technology have become, two high-profile figures on opposite sides of American politics will appear at the same event calling for a reassessment of artificial intelligence policy.

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and veteran progressive senator Bernie Sanders will speak at the “Pro-Human Assembly” in Washington on Tuesday.

According to its website, the meeting “aims to define a shared vision and articulate a better, more human-centered path for the development of artificial intelligence”.

The debate over the potential risks posed by the technology intensified in recent days after a post by Jacob Coxon, a researcher who left Anthropic over concerns that artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity, went viral.

In response, anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger said he thought the chance that artificial intelligence could cause human extinction “within the next decade” was more than 10%.

This weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the pace of artificial intelligence development to be slowed and monitored more closely, as the company has done before, although some have questioned the motives behind it.

Amodei also said any move to restrain artificial intelligence must be done “without sacrificing commercial advantage”.

Executives at two rival AI firms, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk, have also said they agree with Amodei’s proposal for an industry-wide slowdown and regulation, as well as independent monitoring of AI model development.