Trump Rejects AI Guardrails, Ignoring Industry Calls for Safety Measures

US President Donald Trump has rejected calls for regulatory guardrails on artificial intelligence (AI), calling safety concerns a 'SICK conspiracy' and framing the push for oversight as a gift to China's tech ambitions.

The timing of this rejection is not subtle, coming ahead of Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24 in Washington. AI competition and chip exports are top agenda items for the summit.

Just days before Trump's social media posts, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay calling for a deliberate slowdown in AI development until robust safety measures could be established. This position earned backing from prominent tech figures OpenAI's Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

Trump's response was to single out Amodei by name and criticize the idea that pacing development might be prudent, instead advocating for strong presidential leadership as the only safeguard needed against potential AI risks. No new laws, agencies, or frameworks are necessary; just executive discretion is required.