US President Donald Trump has rejected calls for tighter government oversight of artificial intelligence, describing them as part of a conspiracy that could help China overtake the United States in the technology race.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the only controls AI required were a “strong and smart” president and argued that his administration had already prevented AI companies from engaging in harmful activity. He also criticised people he described as conspiracy theorists, traitors and leakers.
The comments, reported by Al Jazeera, came for a second consecutive day as lawmakers, technology specialists and executives debated whether the development of increasingly capable AI systems should be slowed. Trump said on Sunday that concerns about the technology were being raised by negative forces and involved risks that would not materialise.
The debate intensified after Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei wrote that the industry should slow improvements in AI capabilities to create time for stronger safeguards. Amodei said AI agents could, within six to 12 months, potentially take control of the entire internet and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. His proposed framework received support from executives including Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.
Anthropic also said it had stopped attempts to use its Claude model for activities including cyber-espionage, weapons design and mass surveillance. The company reported requests involving missile-guidance and flight-control software and the possible development of biological weapons, but said it had no evidence that a working weapon had been produced.
The safety debate has also affected financial markets. Al Jazeera reported that the Nasdaq 100 fell 1.7 percent in early trading, while the Philadelphia semiconductor index dropped 6 percent. Shares in Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Micron declined, and technology stocks also fell in Europe and Asia as investors considered the possible economic impact of slower AI investment.