President Donald Trump has responded in characteristic fashion to the recent debate around AI safety — by declaring that these concerns are part of a long line of hoaxes “generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country.”
On Saturday, Trump began his musings on AI by writing on his social network Truth Social that “many people think that the words ‘Artificial Intelligence’ are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence.” So he posted a poll where followers could vote on a new name for the technology — Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence. (The poll is still ongoing as of publication time)
A couple hours later, Trump followed up with a post claiming that attempts at “the decimation, or destruction, of AI” are one of “many” Democratic hoaxes, similar to “RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, Men in Women’s Sports, [and] Transgender for Everyone.”
Trump then insisted that he “will not stand by and let this happen,” adding that this so-called hoax “began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built.” But after, in his telling, “the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed,” critics are “going straight at AI.”
Trump did not offer any evidence to back up his claim that widespread suspicion of AI and data centers is not organic and sincere. (Both Republicans and Democrats have taken aim at data centers, and New York recently became the first state to halt permits for large projects.)
The president’s post also echoes his comments at a golf tournament last weekend, when he said he’s open to “guardrails,” but also argued, “I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up.”
On Saturday, Trump went on to say that he will “cherish [the AI industry,] help it, and watch over it, as it grows,” but he’s also forming an AI Force, similar to the Space Force that he established in his first term.
“To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI ‘Czar’ — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” he added.
The president did not say what the AI Force and AI czar’s duties will entail. Venture capitalist Daivd Sacks stepped down as Trump’s AI and crypto czar earlier this year, moving on to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The AI safety debate recently intensified after an AI researcher said he was quitting Anthropic over concerns that the leading AI companies “earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade” and are “gambling with our lives.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei subsequently released a plan to “pace the frontier,” which was seemingly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Critics of the AI industry have suggested that many of these concerns around the technology’s supposed existential threat are a distraction from AI’s more immediate harms.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, meanwhile, called Trump on-stage during the All-In Summit (which Sacks co-hosts), agreed with the president that the AI backlash is a “hoax,” and insisted that “we’re not going to let” a slowdown happen.
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