Donald Trump Claims Artificial Intelligence Only Needs a 'High IQ' President for Regulation

Despite increased calls for more stringent artificial intelligence regulation from big tech executives, US President Donald Trump stated that fears over the rapid rise of AI are part of a conspiracy. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he insisted that the US is in a race against China for AI supremacy and that the winner will ultimately control the world economy.

“The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a strong and smart (High IQ!) President, and the US has that, in spades!” he wrote, claiming his administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things'. Mr Trump also lamented that many US citizens are becoming increasingly angry about the proliferation of data centres, adding that a sick conspiracy is underway against AI and data centres, benefiting only China.

Mr Trump's remarks followed a weekend of major announcements in the technology world. On Saturday, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published an essay addressing rising concerns about AI, noting that the technology has been advancing drastically faster due to its growing ability to build subsequent generations of AI. Mr Amodei argued that the pace of improving AI model capabilities must be slowed. His essay gained traction after OpenAI boss Sam Altman and X chief Elon Musk endorsed his calls for a slowdown.

Shortly after the essay was posted, independent US Senator Bernie Sanders stated he would not ease his push for accountability and regulation. “That’s a start but it’s not enough,” Mr Sanders said, comparing the situation to racing toward a cliff where one must hit the brakes rather than just ease up on the gas pedal.

Meanwhile, opposition to data centre construction driven by the AI boom has continued to spread across the US and elsewhere. Anthropic recently released a report detailing incidents in which people used its AI models to support biological weapons development and described a weapons development effort in northern Yemen. Days before that report, high-level Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning in a letter that there is too little oversight and that many building AI believe it could pose existential threats by the end of the decade.