Trump and Cruz emphasize U.S. dominance in AI race against China

President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about artificial intelligence posing an existential threat to humanity but stressed it was important for the U.S. to “win” the battle for control of the technology with China.

Speaking to reporters Thursday before boarding his Air Force One flight home to Washington, D.C., following the conclusion of the Republican midterms convention in Dallas, Texas, the president was asked if he had any fears about AI’s rapid advance.

“No, I don’t have any,” he answered. “I have concerns that, if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position. We are leading China right now by a pretty good period. I would say a year, which is, you know, considered a lot.”

Separately, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also weighed in on the subject of potential extermination by rogue AI Thursday, telling Politico’s Dasha Burns: “If they’re going to be killer robots, I’d rather they be American killer robots and not Chinese killer robots.”

Like Trump, Cruz warned against China’s role in the swift evolution of the technology, saying the competition Beijing represented meant it would be impossible to slow down the pace of development, adding: “The Chinese are putting no guardrails. They’re going full speed ahead.”

He said the U.S. must not “stifle innovation” and that it would be “dangerous” to allow China to steal a march.

Their comments came after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon took to X Wednesday to announce his resignation and warn that those leading the sector were “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” without taking sufficient precautions.

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade, Coxon said. “This is not a marketing stunt.”

On the same day, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials issued a joint statement accusing China of stealing intellectual property from American AI laboratories through a process known as distillation, singling out the Chinese firms DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba for criticism.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded by urging the U.S. to “refrain from making false accusations and smearing China,” escalating tensions between the superpowers ahead of Premier Xi Jinping’s arrival in Washington on September 24.

Trump, who cheerily posts AI memes on his Truth Social platform, also downplayed concerns about the technology in an interview with GB News earlier this month, telling Bev Turner: “AI is going to be positive. There’s some negatives, but that’ll be straightened out.

“And we’re building plants, data centres, data centres are actually fabulous. They create tremendous wealth, tremendous jobs.”

Asked if he feared AI could ultimately hit employment, he replied: “I think it’ll create millions of jobs because it’s going to create business.

“Computers and things have to be created in some form, and they’re created by man. They are created, but they're created by us. It’s going to always start with us.”