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Trump calls AI danger warnings exaggerated
September 14, 2026
President Trump calls the dire warnings about AI exaggerated, after Anthropic chief Dario Amodei and other tech leaders asked for a slower pace of development.
Donald Trump is the US president. Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI are the leading American AI developers, and their executives have pressed governments and companies over how fast the technology advances.
Key facts
- The BBC reports that xAI owner Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman lent their support on Saturday to Anthropic head Dario Amodei's warning that development should ease off "to reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong".
- NPR places the remarks by Trump and Johnson after an online essay published Saturday by Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, which urged industry and government alike to ease the rate at which AI capabilities advance.
- The BBC reports that Trump's remarks came the same day that Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who left Anthropic days earlier, told the outlet that the people building these systems were "genuinely frightened" for humanity's future.
- According to the BBC, David Sacks, a technology investor who advises the president through a White House scientific and technological panel, replied to the industry's latest remarks by telling the firms to regulate their own conduct.
The Financial Times reports Trump pushing back on calls to rein in the pace of AI work. NPR reports him brushing aside worries on Sunday that the technology might slip out of human control, and reports him calling the darkest predictions overblown, blaming unnamed negative forces for talking up outcomes he says will never arrive. The BBC reports the same remark, made during a visit to Ireland, quoting Trump saying, "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." The Economist folds his dismissal of the warnings into a daily roundup that also tracks continuing trouble on oil routes, and The Washington Post reads the moment as a president holding his ground while opinion around him shifts.
What prompted the remarks is corroborated. BBC and NPR both report an essay from Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, posted online Saturday, urging companies and governments to ease the speed at which AI capabilities advance, with Elon Musk of xAI and Sam Altman of OpenAI lending the argument their support. NPR quotes Amodei writing, "Most of all, stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic," and carries his offer of backing for any firm that holds back a model it judges too dangerous to release. BBC reports Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who left Anthropic days earlier, telling it that colleagues building the systems are frightened for the future of humanity, and reports David Sacks, a tech investor who advises Trump on science and technology, asking the industry to regulate itself.
One point stays unsettled. One account has Trump sidestepping the slowdown proposal and instead claiming an American lead over China that he means to protect, on the reasoning that whoever wins AI wins. Another holds that he never spelled out who the negative forces are and never engaged the proposal at all. Corroborated across the record are his dismissal of the warnings, the Amodei essay that preceded it, and the administration's argument that American dominance in the technology is a security matter, paired with its acknowledgment that the risks need watching.
Speaking on a trip to Ireland, Trump said, "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," according to the BBC.
Still developing
The open claim is what Trump said about leading China on AI, where the accounts do not settle what was said.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- ft.com — Donald Trump rejects calls from tech bosses for AI slowdown
- BBC — Trump downplays AI risks after dire expert warnings and calls to slow development down
- NPR — Trump downplays calls for AI slowdown
- The Economist — World in Brief: Trump dismisses AI warnings; disruption to oil routes continues
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