Trump, tech leaders, and politicians clash over AI regulation amid extinction fears

That wave of discourse was initially set off by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who announced last week that he quit his job due to concerns that OpenAI and Anthropic are "gambling with our lives." As the discussion raged over Coxon's post, an Anthropic alignment lead responded that AI has a greater than 10% chance of 'killing all humans.'

That frenzy built into the weekend, when Amodei called for the AI frontier to slow model development.

Altman quickly joined forces with Amodei in an unusual pairing between the rival AI labs. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk chimed in on X that "Dario is right," later adding that he's been "sounding the alarm on AI for a long time."

The discussion quickly reached Washington, amplifying growing tensions over how to rein in mounting AI risks without stifling tech innovation.

Calls for an AI slowdown have united unlikely political opponents in favor of regulation. Progressive leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon convened at a nonprofit event in Washington on Tuesday in support of AI action.

Trump has vehemently clapped back against the push for AI regulation and warnings about extinction.

Over multiple posts to Truth Social this week, Trump called fears of runaway AI a "hoax" and a "scam" and lashed out against public data center pushback. On Monday, he phoned in to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's interview at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles to bring the message directly to a tech-focused audience.

Trump said in a video posted on social media by an attendee that anyone opposing data center construction is "playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don't want to see it happen," and that could be China.

"You're right," Huang replied. "We're not going to let that happen, sir."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Trump is "completely aligned" with Huang during his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.

Later in the day, Huang again backed Trump's stance at the Salesforce Dreamforce, saying, "We don't need any new laws. We don't need new regulations."

"We just need companies to decide that when it's you know run as fast as they can," he said.

Others in the administration have taken a more aggressive tone with their comments.

Sacks, who is currently co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, encouraged the tech giants to "go ahead and pace the frontier" but "stop pretending the motivation to slow down is purely altruistic."

That jab at perceived "effective altruism" has also been echoed by Emil Michael, under secretary of War for Research and Engineering.

"I think the fearmongering we're seeing now is a coordinated campaign by a set of people and ideologies, and the nonprofits behind them, that are trying to scare the American public," Michael told Fox News on Monday.

Part of the administration's message is that limiting regulation is critical to winning the AI race against China. Trump indicated that the China threat is top of mind, saying on Sunday that "whoever wins AI wins."

House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated during a press conference on Tuesday that Trump plans to unite AI leaders at the White House "within the next week."

He also dismissed AI apocalypse concerns.

"What the president is saying is you're not all going to be dead in 10 years," he said. "That's a hoax."