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Trump calls AI safety warnings a hoax
September 15, 2026
Trump calls warnings about AI a hoax in a run of social media posts, then telephones Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who puts him on speakerphone at a Los Angeles summit.
Jensen Huang is chief executive of the chipmaker Nvidia and an opponent of regulating the AI industry, while the president has praised the technology for years and counts industry leaders among the donors to his projects.
Key facts
- Trump wrote: “The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by ‘Climate Change,’”
- Donald Trump labeled the worries a “HOAX,” likening AI fears to what he termed the “Global Warming Scam” and to the inquiry into whether his campaign had links to Russia's government.
- That same Monday, later in the day, Trump rang Huang — a figure who has openly doubted apocalyptic forecasts about AI — as the executive addressed a summit in Los Angeles.
- Other figures in the administration, Vice President JD Vance among them, questioned why executives such as Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei have been urging Washington to impose tighter rules.
- Preparations for the event have occupied Trump, who has wrapped up work on renovating the North Portico and adding a helipad on the South Lawn.
CNN reports that Trump rang Jensen Huang, who runs the chipmaker Nvidia, to tell him “the robots will not be taking over.” Huang shares the president's dislike of regulating the industry, was speaking at a Los Angeles summit at that moment, and switched the phone to speakerphone so the audience could follow the exchange. CNBC carries Huang's own line from the same room, “These are solvable problems, and the private sector is the right place to solve them.” Axios also carries the onstage call, and a second Axios piece leads on the president casting himself as a buster of hoaxes. Barron's puts Huang's half of the exchange first, describing what he told the president about the argument over AI doom. The New York Times arrives at the subject sideways, through Jimmy Fallon joking about whether Trump can be trusted with worries about the technology.
The posting spree came first. CNN reports that Trump branded the warnings a “HOAX,” set them beside what he called the “Global Warming Scam” and the inquiry into supposed Russian ties to his campaign, alleged a “SICK conspiracy” against AI, and wrote that a strong and smart president is the only guardrail the technology requires. He added, “I also have common sense about AI,” and claimed that Xi “announced that China will be doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of AI, or its future.” CNN also reports the president tracing his grasp of the subject to genetics, on the ground that an uncle of his taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and backing again the data centers that keep AI running, unpopular though they are locally. CNBC places the posts one day ahead of the onstage exchange.
The outlets line up on the wording of the posts, on what Huang said, and on the order of the two events, six posts by Monday evening and then the speakerphone call. Nothing here splits on a figure, a quote or a date. The unsettled part sits inside the administration. CNN reports that some White House officials voice worry among themselves over how lightly the president treats the dangers of the technology, and that Vice President JD Vance and others question why executives such as Anthropic chief Dario Amodei want more oversight from government.
According to CNBC's account, Congress said: “These are solvable problems, and the private sector is the right place to solve them.”
Congress
Still developing
The White House officials who are worried say so only privately, and Huang is where the account stands by the time of draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CNBC — Private sector is 'the right place' to solve AI threats, White House's Hassett says
- CNN — Trump dismisses AI alarms as a ‘HOAX’ — worrying White House officials | CNN Politics
- Axios — "I am the Hoax Buster": Trump's war on AI doomers gets personal
- Barron's — What Nvidia CEO Huang Told Trump About the AI Doom Debate - Barron's
Toggle read the full reports of 2 of the 5 outlets counted on this event. The other 3 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.