Trump answered AI extinction warnings with a year-lead claim over China
President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday he does not share researchers' concerns that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, Bruce Gil at Gizmodo writes. Asked whether he had any of those worries, Trump said: "No, I don't have any."
He named a different danger. "I have concerns that if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position. We are leading China right now by a pretty good period, I would say a year, which is, you know, considered a lot."
Ana Maria Constantin at TNW locates the exchange as Trump left Dallas, and attributes the quote cluster to Jeff Mason at Bloomberg.
Existential risk here means AI systems causing human die-off or irreversible loss of control.
The comments landed after several researchers at frontier labs came forward this week with warnings about increasingly powerful systems, Gizmodo notes. Trump's answer did not take those warnings on their own terms.
Labs spent the week arguing about die-off. The White House answered with a calendar.
A year of lead is a race claim, not a safety bar. It does not say the models are under control. It says America is ahead, and that falling behind China would put the country in a very bad position.
Sen. Ted Cruz told Politico this week, via Gizmodo, that if there are going to be killer robots he would rather they be American. Slowing down, Cruz said, is an "impossible endeavor."
TNW notes the European Commission is calling for global rules ahead of a Trump and Xi Jinping meeting later this month.
Andrew Puzder, the US ambassador to the EU, said in Riga on Friday that Washington is "not going to allow U.S. platforms, U.S. companies to be regulated to the point where we can't beat China," according to Politico via TNW.
Same ranking: China first, extinction second.
Trump has signed numerous executive orders aimed at cutting AI regulations and speeding up development in the name of national security and economic competitiveness, Gizmodo writes.
This was on-the-record to reporters, not a written White House strategy memo. The policy still showed up in the answer.
Labs measure die-off. The White House measures a year.