Trump Dismisses Calls for AI Regulation and Rejects US-China Tech Collaboration

United States President Donald Trump has stated that the country will ignore growing appeals to regulate the development of artificial intelligence. Speaking to reporters on Saturday as he departed the White House in Washington, DC, Trump emphasized that the US “is not going to be putting on brakes” for AI. This stance comes despite industry CEOs and US lawmakers agreeing on the urgent need to slow development due to potential risks to humanity.

Trump compared these warnings to other issues he has dismissed as hoaxes, including climate change and the investigation into his 2016 campaign's alleged collusion with Russian operatives. “When they wanna put on brakes, it’s just like everybody’s going to be dead. You’re all supposed to be dead now, because of global warming. It’s like Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. All of these different hoaxes,” Trump stated. He added that critics aim to halt American progress because the US is leading China by a significant margin and intends to maintain that lead.

Following a three-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump rejected the idea of cooperating with China on the technology. “I would rather not integrate, because we’re leading by a lot,” he said. Prior to the meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged global leaders during the United Nations General Assembly to establish guardrails for AI to prevent unchecked development.

While hopes for a breakthrough agreement on AI between Trump and Xi did not materialize, the White House announced that both nations agreed to establish a “bilateral communication channel” for AI incidents. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has officially renamed artificial intelligence to “super intelligence” or “SI” in official communications, a term the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that Xi respects.