US President Donald Trump pushed back forcefully on Sunday against growing calls from leading technology executives to slow the pace of artificial intelligence development, arguing that falling behind China poses a far greater risk than the potential dangers of unchecked AI. Speaking to reporters during a weekend trip to Ireland, where he watched the Irish Open at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Trump acknowledged that some regulation might eventually be appropriate but dismissed those raising urgent safety concerns as "negative forces" pushing ideas "that won't happen."
"We're leading China in AI, and frankly I want to keep it that way, because whoever wins AI wins," Trump said. When asked later whether he was downplaying the technology's risks, he insisted he was not, adding that AI is "going to be more good than bad, but by a lot." His remarks came a day after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a widely discussed blog post calling for the industry to deliberately slow its pace of capability improvements to allow safety measures time to catch up — a position publicly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Trump's response signals a sharp divide between the White House and Silicon Valley over how to govern one of the most consequential technologies of the era. David Sacks, a technology investor who co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, challenged AI leaders to act independently rather than seek government backing. "The easiest way not to build superintelligence is for you to agree not to build it," Sacks wrote on social media, accusing industry figures of using safety warnings to pressure the government into accepting their preferred regulatory framework. House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed that scepticism, warning against Congress imposing an "emergency moratorium," while still acknowledging that some guardrails would eventually be needed to prevent AI from "running away."
The debate is unfolding against a politically charged backdrop. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas argued that a slowdown was simply not viable because China would continue advancing regardless. "If there are going to be killer robots, I'd rather they be American killer robots than Chinese ones," he told Politico. Former President Barack Obama offered a contrasting view, urging Democrats to treat AI safety as a central campaign issue and develop concrete plans addressing job displacement, child safety, and governance. Bipartisan concern in Congress has already led to at least one House bill proposing that AI systems be required to operate under human oversight.
The stakes extend beyond US borders. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Washington later in September for talks with Trump, and AI governance is likely to feature in those discussions. Amodei said on Sunday he hopes the two leaders might agree at minimum that AI must not be used to develop biological weapons — a modest baseline he described as a potential starting point for broader international coordination. Whether competitive pressures between the two nations will allow even that limited accord remains far from certain, and analysts note that the fundamental tension between racing ahead and regulating responsibly has no easy resolution when both sides fear that slowing down means losing.