President Donald Trump slammed critics of his artificial intelligence policies and promised to continue the industry’s growth on Monday, shutting down hopes that the federal government would step in to regulate AI.
AI concerns hit a fever pitch this month as several industry researchers and engineers suggested that the technology was advancing and learning at an uncontrollable rate, and that AI models could wipe out the human race.
Trump has steadily fostered an explosion of American AI companies since reentering office, and he likened AI skeptics to climate activists on Monday
“The same people that said, ‘We’ll all be dead in twelve years because of Global Warming,’ a name since ‘reborn’ to Climate Change, because the Planet was cooling, not warming, and nobody was dead, are the people that are now saying that AI is going to kill us, that robots are going to attack us, and everything is a DISASTER,” he wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social. “This is more of a Hoax than even that of RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, and Climate Change!”
“Whoever wins AI, WINS! We are leading now over China, and everyone else, and I’m going to keep it that way! I’m not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself,” the president continued. “We will be careful, and that’s why we have the Department of Justice, and other Law Enforcement bodies, that will rein things in if we have to, but I will only encourage AI or, SI (SUPER INTELLIGENCE)!”
Despite Trump’s staunch defense of AI, he seems aware of the souring public sentiment toward the emerging industry.
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Over the weekend, he floated the idea of standing up an AI Force, modeled after the launch of Space Force during his first term, to oversee safety concerns relayed by experts and American AI companies.
The president also posted several polls on social media asking his followers to rank alternative names for AI, foreshadowing the attempted rebrand included in his Monday statement.